How To Use Recommend, Suggest, Advise | Confusing English Grammar

Welcome to this video.

Today you're going to learn how to use recommend, suggest, and advise.

If you think you already know how to use these three verbs, most likely, you don't.

Because this is the number one mistake I hear from students, regardless of their level,

regardless of their background.

And you need to fix this mistake.

So get ready because that's exactly what you're going to do.

Of course I'm Jennifer from jforrestenglish.com.

Now let's dive in and get started.

Music

Let's talk about how to use recommend, suggest and advise.

Now make sure you watch right to the end because I'm also going to share how to use explain,

because it's a little bit different, but it's very important that you learn that too.

Because I hear that mistake every day with my students.

So let's say you're at a restaurant, you're looking through the menu and then you ask

your server, what would you recommend me.

Or you're discussing a problem with your boss and you ask, what would you suggest me.

What do you think about these sentences?

Are these sentences grammatically correct or incorrect?

What do you think?

Well these sentences are wrong.

You can't say, what would you recommend me, suggest me.

Yet, I hear it every single day.

In fact, I hear this so much from students that it's starting to sound normal.

Just because I hear it every single day.

And I have to remember, that's not correct.

And the reason why this is incorrect is because the sentence structure is incorrect.

Following the verb recommend, suggest, we do not want an object pronoun.

Me is an object pronoun.

The good news is there's a very easy way to fix this.

Don't say me.

If you're at a restaurant, say, what would you recommend.

If you're talking to your boss say, what do you suggest.

That's all you need to do.

Because grammatically, from a sentence structure, we don't want the object pronoun.

Now let's take a look at this example I saw on youglish.

The example is, I recommend you find 150 books.

Now this is where students get confused, because they see you, I recommend you.

So why can't I say, what would you recommend me.

Because this you is not an object pronoun.

It's tricky, because you is both the subject pronoun.

I, you, he, she, it, we, they.

And you is also the object pronoun.

Me, you, him, or her.

But in this sentence me is a subject pronoun.

Now you'll notice here we have our verb recommend, and then following the verb recommend we have

a clause.

A clause is a subject, a verb, and an object.

I recommend you is the subject, find is the verb 150 books is the object.

Now, in written English, you can use that to connect recommend and the clause.

I recommend that, I suggest that, it's optional.

And in written English, it's most commonly included.

But in spoken English, it's most commonly left out.

So based on what I just said, what do you think about this sentence.

And the doctor suggested me to lose weight.

Is this sentence correct or incorrect?

What do you think?

The doctor suggested me to lose weight.

It's wrong, you can't say this.

Because me is an object pronoun.

And we do have a verb, but the verb isn't even conjugated with anything.

It's just in the infinitive form.

So remember, we need recommend, suggests, plus, a clause.

A clause is a subject, a verb, and an object.

So how can we fix this sentence?

We can say, the doctor recommended that I lose weight.

I is our subject.

Lose is our verb.

Notice the verb is conjugated with the subject.

And our object is weight.

Remember that is optional, most likely, I'll keep it in with written English, and I'll

leave it out with spoken English.

The doctor recommended I lose weight.

Another quiz for you.

What do you think about this sentence, would you recommend me for the promotion?

Would you recommend me for the promotion?

What do you think?

Is this good or bad?

This is good.

Don't be confused.

I'm going to make this very clear for you.

Would you recommend me for the promotion?

In this sentence, I am not receiving the recommendation.

I am the recommendation.

Because you can recommend something, for example, I recommend the duck.

If you're at a restaurant and you're looking for different items.

There's chicken, fish, and duck.

I recommend the duck.

That's a something.

So, in this case, I am the recommendation.

I'm the recommendation for the promotion.

Think of it like this.

Your boss asks you.

Who should we recommend for the promotion?

Who should we recommend?

We should recommend, Jennifer, of course.

Why wouldn't you?

We should recommend Jennifer.

I am the recommendation.

So in my question, remember I asked my colleague, would you recommend me for the promotion.

This is not the same as saying, what would you recommend me.

Because that is incorrect.

In that case, I'm receiving the recommendation, I am not the recommendation.

I'm receiving it.

And then you don't want an object pronoun, and you simply say, what would you recommend?

I recommend the duck.

Who would you recommend?

I recommend Jennifer.

There is another sentence structure you need to know.

And that's recommend, suggest plus gerund.

Gerund is your verb and ING.

For example, I recommend drinking eight glasses of water a day.

I recommend ordering the duck.

Now let's talk about advise.

You can say, he advised signing the contract.

So what do you notice here, what's the sentence structure?

What do we have right here?

Well of course we have advised plus gerund.

So this is the same thing we can do with recommend or suggest.

You can also say He advised that I sign the contract.

So what do you notice about this sentence structure.

Well, it's advise plus that, which is optional, and then we have our clause.

Subject, verb, and then our object.

So this is also the exact same sentence structure you can use with recommend or suggest.

Now, what about this sentence.

He advised me to sign the contract?

Advise me.

He advised me.

What do you think, is this correct or incorrect?

Well, this is correct.

So with this specific verb, advise, you can have a pronoun, you can advise someone.

But notice what comes next, we have our infinitive. to plus base verb.

He advised me.

He advised him to revise, he advised you to sign, to go, to eat, to drink.

Any infinitive.

And then our object, the contract.

So advise is more flexible, you can use it with the gerund or clause, and you can even

say advise me.

So now let's talk about explain, because I hear this every single day.

Teacher, can you explain me how to use the present perfect.

What do you think about that?

Can you explain me?

Is that correct or incorrect?

Well, you should know this by now, it's wrong.

You don't explain someone.

You explain to someone.

This is why I saved explain for the end.

But I really wanted you to learn it because it's the same thing.

We don't want an object pronoun.

Explain me.

No, explain to me, That's all you need to do.

You need to add that preposition to because you explain to someone.

Now most commonly we use the structure, explain something to someone.

Can you explain the present perfect to me.

Now, if it's obvious that you're the one receiving the explanation, you don't even have to say

it, you don't need to say to me, to him, to us, to them.

If it's obvious, you can just say, can you explain the present perfect, that's fine.

But you don't want to say, can you explain me.

So please take the time to study and learn what I taught you in this video because you

will not sound fluent, you will not sound natural, you will not pass your IELTS, or

your language exam, if you say recommend me, explain me, that's a beginner mistake.

But I hear all my students, advanced students from every background, use that sentence structure.

So take the time, watch this video multiple times to really understand the sentence structure.

And then leave some examples in the comments below because you really need to practice

it the correct way and get a lot of repetitions with the correct form.

Now I'm also going to recommend.

I'm going to recommend two other videos.

I'm going to recommend that you watch two other videos.

I'm going to recommend watching two other videos.

Notice I just used our three sentence structures.

I'm also going to recommend that you watch two other videos because they're related.

And they'll really help you understand these verbs better.

The first one is on how to use recommendation suggestion and advice.

Those are the noun forms of the verb.

The second video is on the difference between advice and advise, the noun and the verb,

because I hear mistakes with both of these all the time.

So I'll leave the links to those videos in the description below.

And if you found this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends,

and of course subscribe.

And before you go, make sure you head on over to my website, jforrestenglish.com and download

your free speaking guide.

In this guide, I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently.

And until next time, Happy Studying.

Repeat after me.

I swear that I will not say recommend me again.

I swear that I will not say explain me again.

All right, now you're ready to leave this video.

I'll see you my next one.

Bye.