Recommend vs. Suggest in English | Fix Common Mistakes

After years and years of learning English,

do you occasionally have those moments where you know you made a mistake while

you were speaking, but you're not really sure what the mistake was.

Perhaps something just sounded off or maybe somebody gave you that

look, that look that says didn't sound right,

but I understand what you're saying.

These moments irritate my students to no end.

And they often happen with commonly confused pairs of words,

like the words recommend and suggest.

How exactly do you differentiate between the meaning of these two

words and how they're used?

Both verbs are fantastic for offering advice.

The challenge is they can't always be used interchangeably and

it can be a struggle to get the grammatical structures correct.

So let's fix that. If you don't already know,

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,

everything I do here is designed to help you with the confidence you want for

your life and work in English. By the end of this lesson today,

you will perfectly understand the differences between suggest

and recommend you'll know exactly how and when to use each of them.

Along with the grammars structures you need for accuracy.

Be sure to stick with me all the way to the end,

because I have a quiz for you to make sure you've got it right

At first glance,

the verbs suggest and recommend look like synonyms.

And it seems as though you could use them interchangeably, however,

the context or the situation you're in

determines how and when to use each of these words.

Plus there is a subtle distinction in the definition.

So let's start with getting the definitions straight.

To recommend means to present something that is advisable,

something that is worthy of favorability.

Most importantly, we tend to use this verb on a more personal level.

For example,

when expressing opinions based on our personal experience or our

preference is. For example,

I might say I recommend watching The Queen's Gambit.

It'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

I'm recommending something based on my personal opinion and experience,

having watched that TV show. And I think it's worthy of your time.

The definition of to suggest is slightly different.

To suggest means to introduce something for consideration

or as an option.

It doesn't necessarily mean that I think it's great.

It's just an option worth considering. In other words,

unlike to recommend,

when we use suggest there's less of a personal investment,

it's simply an option. Now that we've got the definition straight,

let's take a look at the grammar needed for accuracy when using

recommend or suggest.

And here I will want to reiterate or underscore that it's the

context that defines how,

and when we use these two words to make that easier to understand,

we're going to use three specific situations to understand how we might

decide whether to use, recommend, or suggest and how we do it.

The three situations we're going to consider are when you want to share

your thoughts about something; situation two,

when you want to recommend or suggest an action,

something that you want someone else to do; and situation number three,

when you want to recommend something or someone

to someone. Let's start with that first situation.

When you want to share your thoughts about something,

when you want to share your opinion on something, a topic, a product, a service,

the word you use will depend on whether your comes from a personal

experience or preference,

or if it's just a generic thought one idea of many,

but you don't really have any personal investment.

Whether you choose to use, recommend or suggest in both cases,

you're going to use the following structure.

You'll use the verb recommend or suggest followed by the object.

Here are a couple of examples.

Imagine that a tourist randomly stops you on the street to ask,

are there any good cafes around here? And you might say,

I recommend the cafe down the street.

We have our verb recommend followed by the object, the cafe.

I recommend the cafe down the street.

And because we've chosen to use the verb recommend,

it indicates that you have some personal experience with this cafe

and you prefer it. On the other hand,

you might be at work trying to tackle some problem and

in recommending or advising a course of action, you might say,

I suggest a meeting to finalize the details of the contract.

Once again, we're following the structure, suggest followed by the object,

a meeting. And by using the word suggest,

it's not really a personal preference,

it's just an idea that others should consider.

And it seems like an appropriate option, an appropriate course of action.

And now let's move on to situation number two when we might want to use

recommend or suggest. This is when we want to focus on an action,

we want to recommend or suggest that someone does something.

They take action. When we're encouraging someone to take action,

there are two structures we can use. The first is to use,

recommend or suggest followed by a gerund.

A gerund is one of those I N G nouns.

And we'll look at some examples in just a moment,

but the second possible structure is the verb recommend or suggest

followed by that. And then a subject and a verb.

Let's take a look at that for or structure more closely. We use,

recommend or suggest with a gerund when we're recommending

an action that we hope will happen in the immediate future.

For example, if you take a friend to your favorite restaurant, you might say,

I recommend ordering the house special.

The recommended course of action is order.

You want your friend to order something specific and you hope that it's going to

happen in the next few minutes. Here's another example.

Let's say the weather forecast indicates that a huge storm is coming your way.

And one of your friends is just about to go on a trip. You might say,

I suggest waiting until the storm passes before heading up north.

Again,

the course of action that you're recommending is that your friend waits for the

storm to pass. Before we look at the second structure,

let's go back to those two examples and think about the choice between using

recommend and suggest. In the first example,

you have personal experience with this restaurant.

You've had this specific dish before,

so there's some personal investment there. You have a preference.

So the verb recommend is a great choice. In the second example,

the verb suggest indicates that it's an option. It definitely makes sense.

It's a great option to consider,

but it's not something that you've personally experienced.

And now that second structure we talked about with recommend or suggest

followed by that, then a subject and a verb.

This is particularly effective when you want to emphasize by

whom the action should be taken. For example,

I recommend that you focus on doing more field work

before you write your dissertation. In that example,

we have recommend that you and the verb focus.

Here's another example.

I suggest that everyone uses their vacation days before the end of the year

because HR will not be carrying unused days forward.

Again,

we have that structure that is focused on everyone in the office.

I suggest that everyone uses.

And now our third and last situation for this topic on

confusing word pairs is when you want to recommend

something or someone to someone,

and as you may have guessed in this scenario,

we only use the verb recommend here's the structure we follow.

We include the verb,

recommend followed by an object and then for

something or two someone.

Let's take a look at two examples where we can see this structure clearly.

Let's say you just finished a fantastic book and you're recommending it to

everyone in your next conversation with a friend, you might say,

I recommend The Alchemist for your next book club pick.

It's a beautiful story. Let's look at that structure.

I recommend The Alchemist,

the object for your next book club

pick. And now a second example.

Let's say that someone at work is asking you for some assistance or information,

but it's not really your area of expertise.

And you know that another team member would have the answer to this question.

So you might say,

I recommend Isabella for more information on this client,

she's worked with them exclusively. Okay,

now that you have three clear situations in which you

might use to suggest or recommend, let's do a quiz.

I have four questions for you. And based on what you've learned in this lesson,

I want you to choose the correct verb for each sentence.

Be sure to think carefully about the context and whether it is

a personal opinion based on experience or preference or simp

a thought an option.

And don't forget to consider the grammar tense as well.

Question number one, the lawyer ___

that we review the contract carefully before finalizing the details

and signing, what do you think what's the best choice in that sentence?

As always,

you can share your answer with me in the comments below and now question number

two. I ____the holiday market,

it's absolutely magical question. Number three,

my daughter ____ the Dyson hairdryer. She said it's worth the price.

And number four, please ____ any

alternative meeting times via email. What do you think again,

you can share all your answers with me in the comment section below.

That is also where I will share the correct answers so that you confirm what

you've written. If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know.

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You can also share this with friends or our coworkers who are also struggling

with confusing word pairs in English. Thank you so much for joining me.

And I look forward to seeing you next time.