宁可...也要， willing to... in order to

Despite what you think, in English, 宁可...也要 bares little resemblance to 宁可...也不

Examples:

I'm willing to stop talking to my parents in order to get married to that girl.

Correct translation: 宁可跟我父母断绝关系，也要跟那个女孩结婚。

Setup: (If you really want to marry her, you only have two choices: you can kill them or cut off all contact with them.) I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her. (How you might think, incorrectly, to translate 宁可跟我父母断绝关系，也要跟那个女孩结婚.)

Ok. Comment. This English sentence:

I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her.

doesn't pass the smell test. The use of "rather" in this sentence and in english in general follows a fairly strict pattern.

NOTE： 与其。。。不如 is "rather than" and NOT "rather". Or can often be translated in much better ways.

Ok, back to our point: "rather", alone in english implies a comparison with exactly one other thing. Hence our sentence failing the smell test. It should properly read:

I'd rather stop talking to my parents than kill them.

However, while the first sentence appears iffy, or maybe doesn't pass the smell test, it's actually ok. Why? Because it has become this:

I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her than kill them (to marry her).

Like the "good sentence"

I'd rather stop talking to my parents than kill them.

can simply omit the second clause (than kill them) and become

"I'd rather stop talking to my parents."

Our "smelly" sentence's "man in full"

I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her than kill them (to marry her).

can likewise omit its "better half" and morph into our smelly, but on second thought 臭豆腐 is actually ok:

I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her.

When you look directly at the chinese:

宁可跟我父母断绝关系，也要跟那个女孩结婚

and write out some translations, things may look fishy, but after some 思索 you realize they just eat the bones here, and the sentence, in context, can be fine.

BACK TO 宁可.

Anyway, while our smelly sentence turned out to taste great (or is at least edible), it's simply the wrong translation.

宁可 most often means "rather",

but, in a 宁可...也要 句子, it means "willing" or "willing to"

Sentences of this structure in chinese imply that the thing stated in the first clause is the worst of all possible choices, but because achieving the goal stated in the second clause is so important, you are willing to do it.

我宁可牺牲自己，也要救我的孩子。 I'm willing to sacrifice myself in order to save my save my child. == 为了救我的孩子，我连牺牲的决心也有。


Moving on. So, how do we translate

I'd rather stop talking to my parents to get married to her.

into chinese 呢？ Well, let's see:

为了跟她结婚，我宁可跟父母断绝关系。（也不杀死他们）。

One day I need to look up the origins of 宁愿 or 宁肯 to see if they are somehow related to this.