"You HAD better" / You'D better"... What?

Mate, your girlfriend looks like she wants to eat me. Is she all right?

She's fine! We've never seen a hungry girlfriend before

She just needs pizza

No mate, I've seen a hungry girlfriend

That is something else

We should make her a pizza then because she's.. she's really scary.

Yeah in a minute

How could he say that in a different way?

Could he add more meaning to it?

First let's look at that word should

Some of my students think that "should" is the same as "must"

No

Should it's not a rule. It's not an obligation

You're giving advice

You're just saying: this is a good idea

For example

If your friend has a cut on his leg, it's bleeding

But it starts to turn green, or blue, or purple

or black.

Maybe you'll say this:

You should see a doctor

It's a good idea to see a doctor

Again, It's not an obligation

It's not "you MUST see the doctor, you HAVE to"

It's not that. No

You're giving advice. That's it

If you use the negative "Shouldn't"

That just means it's a bad idea.

Hmm. Maybe don't do this. That's my advice

For example

You shouldn't try to sneeze with your eyes open

If you don't know, a sneeze is the "Atchu" thing

Is that true? I don't know

That can't be true

Why would that be bad?

I tried

And of course, the question form is like this

So, okay. Let's change the word "Should"

We can use "had better" to replace "should"

It basically means the same thing and

grammatically, it works the same

The verb after, should be the infinitive verb

The original verb without "to"

For example

A positive sentence could be this:

So "had better" very useful, but not as common as "should"

So when should I use "had better" and not "should"

Well, you'll mostly hear it and use it, when there's some urgency

So you should do this, but quickly. Come on! Now!

for example

Or when it's like if you don't do the thing

Something bad will happen

For example if your friend has to go to the airport

But he's sitting there playing on his phone

like I do all the time

you might say

You'd better leave

because if you don't...

You'll miss your flight

something bad will happen

Also, some of you are thinking

if I'm late for my flight, or bus, or train

Shouldn't I say lose my flight? Lose my train? Lose my bus?

Nope

The verb is miss

You miss your flight, miss your bus, miss your train.

It could be a threat

like for example

So, in this case, it's like a threat

If you don't do it

Something bad will happen

Notice how in all of these situations

I'm not saying you had better

No. I'm using the contraction

that's because in speech the contraction is always best

Unless you want to really emphasize something

Make it sound strong

then you might say

Yeah, pretty much

We always just use the contraction

you'd - I'd - we'd

In fact, actually, we often drop the "had" in speaking

and casual writing like with your friends

Don't write it in an exam. That would be bad.

But in spoken English, it's fine. Don't worry about it.

I need to talk about pronunciation because

Maybe you noticed

I just said better. "I better go"

And I pronounced the "T" like a "Duh"

That's like American English... Bleh

But actually, when you say "I better", "you better"

You have three ways to pronounce it.

"I better" it's fine.

"I better" that's fine as well

"I better" as a glottal T, and also that is fine

So, of course you've got "I better"

[singing Eminem]

So your reply, if the context is obvious

Can just be

You could drop the "had"

Or... Even

That's fine too

So write your own examples

Your own bits of advice in the comments using "had better"

Practice it. Positive, negative and question form

Also give someone some advice using "had better" in your Instagram stories

Tag me at @PapaTeachMe

and I'll repost the best ones

see you in the next class

Do you think I should order a pizza now?

Yeah, I think you'd better, before she eats me