Giving advice.

5 WAYS TO GIVE ADVICE

Use a modal verb

Make it into a question

There are two modal verbs that we often use to give advice: "should" and "ought to". They both mean the same thing, but they function differently.

should

ought to

You should get out more.

You shouldn't eat so much.

You ought to get out more.

You ought not eat so much.

Difference:

Unlike 'should', 'to' is always used in 'ought to' to give advice.

Put yourself in the person’s position

Make a suggestion

Advise in a stronger way

To make advice less direct, we can use a question to make the person we are advising consider about the advice we are giving them.

If someone is asking for your advice, sometimes it’s useful to imagine yourself being in that person’s position. This is a good way to explain your advice, too.

A suggestion or recommendation is a good way to give advice without being direct. You can use the words "suggest" or "recommend".

Sometimes, you need to make your advice stronger to let the listener know that it’s really important. We can use the expression ‘you had better…’ to do this.

How about…?

How about exercising a little more?

Why don't you exercise a little more?

With the question ‘Why don’t you…?’ we use an infinitive without ‘to’. When we use ‘How about…?’ to make a question, we use a gerund after it.

If I were you, I would have a bigger car.

If I were you, I not would have a bigger car.

Remember to use an infinitive after ‘would’ and not ‘to’. To make this negative, put ‘not’ after ‘would’.

suggest

recommend

I would recommend doing more trips together.

I would recommend not doing any more trips together.

I would suggest doing another hike.

I would suggest not doing another hike.

Use ‘verb+ing’ after ‘suggest’ or ‘recommend’ to explain your advice to the listener. To make these negative, put ‘not’ before your ‘verb+ing’.

you had better

You'd better finish the song before the vacations.

You'd better not finish the song before the vacations.

We use an infinitive after ‘better’ to explain our advice and add ‘not’ after ‘better’ to make the sentence negative.

Why don’t you…?