There are three words that can easily cause confusion for students of English. They are advise, recommend, and suggest. They are all about telling other people whatyou think they should do. But, I’d like to take time in this lesson to find some differences. First we look at differences in terms of meaning and use, and then we will take time to look at differences in grammar. So, let’s start with advise. Advise, we could say to tell someone what you should do or what decision you should make. But, I will add to that you’re doing this because you have the expertise, the experience or some knowledge to know what’s best. So, people who advise are people who have some (1. ______): for example, a doctor can advise a patient, a banker advises a client.
All right, now ket's take recommend; it has the same basic definition. Recommend means to tell someone what you think that they should do. And I feel that it’s the same as advise, but it doesn’t have that area of (1. ______). You don’t have to be somebody with expertise necessarily, you just believe (2. ________________________). So friends can recommend in action, teachers can recommend in action. I and Ben argued the recommend can be used in more situations, more relationships.
The final one was suggest: suggest is still the same basic definition, telling someone what you think they should do. But, it’s more about (3. ______) an idea. So maybe we can then refine that definition for suggest, and say, it's offer an idea about what to do. Perhaps, the people have better idea, but you want to offer an idea for consideration. OK?
All right, so now let’s pause to see if you understood my explanation. I’m going to show you three sentences, and I want you to decide which of the three verbs fits eachone for only going to use each verb once.
Why? Because this is informal situation, and
Why? First of all, we are not in the authority in the situation, and this is more than just offering an idea for consideration. We don’t like the schedule to suggest we want to change it because the change is the best thingto do that's what we believe that the best thing to do.
OK, so now let’s talk about grammar. What are the differences among these three verbs?
Let’s startwith the advise: You can advise someone(s.o.) to do something (sth.). Forexample, a doctor advises a patient (s.o.) to quit smoking (sth.). Or the negative, a doctor advises patientsnot to eat fatty foods.
You canadvise someone on something. For example, a banker advises client on financial matters, or a professor advises students on academic matters.
You can also advise against something: For example, a doctor can advise against smoking.
We can often say ‘give a piece of advice’. Andnote that advice is uncount noun, so you don’t use an article. It doesn’t necessarily have to be coming fromsomebody with expertise or somebody in authority.
Recommend: For example, I can recommend a changing in your sleeping habits, or can recommend changing your sleeping habits, or I can recommend that you change sleeping habits.
Suggest: For example, I can suggest a pizza party. I can suggest having a pizza party, or I can suggest that we have a pizza party.
OK, so now we’ve looked at the grammar. Let’s pause and do it check and make sure you understand which verbs take which grammatical forms. I’m going to show you sentences and I will give you a choice between two verbs. You decide grammatically which verb must complete the sentences.