Grammar - Giving Advice - SHOULD, OUGHT TO, HAD BETTER

Hi, this is Alex, and welcome to this lesson on giving advice using "should," "ought to,"

and "had better."

Okay, so we use two of these kind of interchangeably, okay?

So "should" and "ought to," you can use in a similar fashion, whereas "had better" has

a specific purpose, or is a stronger type of advice.

So we use "should" and "ought to" when we're trying to say something is advisable to do,

okay?

So for example, I have three sentences, all having the same kind of end goal, but the

effect is different depending on if you use "should," "ought to," or "had better."

So for example, "He should call his mother."

It would be good if he called his mother, right?

It's not urgent, but it would be advisable if he called his mother.

Same with "ought to."

"He ought to call his mother."

It's advisable.

"He should" or "ought to" are used similarly, okay?

So you can use either one, "should" or "ought to," and it will have the same effect.

Now, "He had better call his mother."

This is a much stronger type of advice, okay?

We use "had better" when we are giving urgent advice, okay?

So essentially what that means is, it is advice you give where if the advice is not followed,

something bad could happen, okay?

So "He had better call his mother," or something bad might happen.

I'm not sure, let's say, it's a bit morbid, but if your mother is in the hospital, "He

had better call his mother," he might not get another chance.

That was a bad example, I'm sorry.

Okay, so essentially if we're looking at the form of how to structure this kind of advice,

we use the subject, so "I," "you," "he," "she," "it," "we," or "they," plus "should," "ought

to," "had better," and the base form of the verb.

So let's do another example of using "should," okay?

Let's say, "You should study your notebook tonight."

You should study your notebook tonight.

I'm giving you advice, okay?

There is a good reason why you should study your notebook tonight.

You ought to study your notebook, means similar to "should," using "should."

Whereas if I say, "You had better study your notebook tonight," I'm giving you urgent advice.

I am saying, "If you do not study your notebook tonight, you could fail, and you will likely

fail."

Okay?

So, again, using "should" and "ought to" when giving advice, you can use them, either one,

either one is good.

When you're using "had better," you're giving urgent, strong advice, saying that you had

better do something, or else, something bad might happen.

Now, let's look at how to use these in question form.

Okay, now, when we ask questions, generally we don't want to use "ought to" or "had better."

It's not very common, okay?

So when you're asking questions using "should," well, really, you should only be using "should,"

okay?

"Ought to" and "had better," they sound a little awkward, and not many people use it

in everyday, standard English.

So when you ask a question, "Should we go shopping?"

You answer with, "Yes, we should," or, "No, we should not."

So you're wondering, "Well, can't I ask, 'Ought we go shopping?'"

While technically, grammatically, you know, correct and fine, people do not speak like

that anymore, really, in everyday, modern English, okay?

And one more thing that I wanted to mention, actually, well, a couple of things.

First off, not related to question asking, but the term "ought to," in pronunciation,

someone might say "oughta," okay?

So I'm going to write this down for you.

If someone is giving you advice saying, "You ought to study," so, "You ought to study,"

so remember, "ought to" means the same thing as "should."

If someone says, "You ought to study," they might not say very properly saying, "You ought

to study."

They might say, "You oughta study," okay?

So they will say it like this, "You oughta," "You oughta study," "You should study," okay?

In writing, do not write this, ever, ever, ever, okay?

If you are speaking, it's absolutely fine, it's accepted, people will understand that

you mean "ought to," that sound is an ambulance driving by, we ought to stop the tape, but

we will keep going because we are almost finished, okay?

So "oughta" is "ought to."

When giving unasked-for advice, okay, so no one has asked for your advice, it's nice to

use words like "I think" or "maybe," so again, if you're telling your friend that they should

go to work because they've been staying at home a lot, you might want to say, "Phil,

I think you should go to work today," okay?

You're being polite, you're not saying, "You should go to work today."

They did not ask for your opinion, but you're giving your opinion back, so you're saying,

"I think you should go to work today," "Maybe you should go to work today," so you're making

it softer for them, okay?

If you'd like to do a quiz on these, please check out www.engvid.com, okay?

Once again, my name is Alex, thanks for watching.