Help the cowardly knight politely decline the king's dangerous quests by dragging the right phrases into his speech.

"Your Majesty, I would rather not fight the fire-breathing dragon today," Sir Reginald mumbled nervously.

"If given the choice, I would like to stay inside the castle walls and polish the royal silverware."

"Actually, I would rather the court wizard handled all the dangerous monsters from now on."

"Your Majesty, I would rather not fight the fire-breathing dragon today," Sir Reginald mumbled nervously.

To make "would rather" negative when the subject is doing the action, we simply add "not" before the bare infinitive (would rather not + verb).

"If given the choice, I would like to stay inside the castle walls and polish the royal silverware."

Because the verb that follows is a full infinitive ("to stay"), we must use would like. "Would rather" cannot be followed by "to".

"Actually, I would rather the court wizard handled all the dangerous monsters from now on."

When you state a preference for someone else to do something (the court wizard), would rather is followed by the subject and a past tense verb, even though it refers to the present or future.