How to give advice in English.

Sometimes we want to help our friends by giving them advice. Maybe you want to tell them about your favorite shopping mall, or you want to explain how to do something. Look at these two examples:

 “Go to Siam Paragon.”

“You should go to Siam Paragon.”

Both of these sentences give advice, but which is more polite?

Example 2 is more polite. It has a subject, “You”, which is more personal. It also uses the special Modal Verb “should”.

You can use “should” to give advice or share your opinion. So how do you use it in a sentence?

Use “Should” for positive statements.

 Subject + SHOULD + BV (base verb) + Object

You can give “positive” advice by using “should” before a Base Verb. Remember, don’t change the Base Verb! No -s, -ed, or -ing.

Examples:

He should go to a doctor.

They should buy a new car.

What are the Base Verbs in these examples? “Go” and “Buy” are Base Verbs. They are after “Should”. These verbs are important because they tell the listener what to do.

Can you make positive sentences with these verbs?

get / job

wake up / early

eat / good food

You can also use should to tell someone what they should not do.

Use “Should” for negative statements.

Sometimes, you want to stop your friend from doing something bad. This is still giving advice, but you need to make it negative. To make a statement negative, put “Not” after “should”.

Subject + SHOULD + “not” + BV + Object

Examples:

They should not fight.

You shouldn’t eat so much fatty food.

Both of these examples give negative advice. Both sentences use “Should” and a Base Verb. They also have “Not”, but what’s different?

You can connect “Should” and “Not” together with an apostrophe.

Should + Not = Shouldn’t

This is called a “Conjunction”, and it is very common in English.

Your friend wants to go to a temple in Thailand. What would be good advice?

You should wear long pants.

You shouldn’t talk loudly.

You shouldn’t take pictures.

The first example is good advice! It is polite to wear long pants at a temple.

The second example is also good advice. You shouldn’t talk loudly in a temple, it’s more polite to be quiet.

The third example is not great advice. It is okay to take pictures at a temple. Temples in Thailand are beautiful!

Can you change these sentences to negative statements?

Don’t go to the park today.

Smoking is not good for you.

It’s not a good idea to study late at night.

Now your friend wants to go shopping in Bangkok. Where is a good place? Chatuchak? Central World? If your friend wants to shop at Chatuchak , they will probably ask for more advice. How can you get there? What should you bring?

Ask for advice with questions.

Some questions in English only have a “yes” or “no” answer. We call these “closed questions”. You can use these questions if you don’t want many details. You just want to know “yes” or “no”.

Make closed questions with “should”.

Closed questions need a Subject and Verb, just like a normal sentence. If you want to give advice, you need to use the verb “Should” and another Base Verb.

 SHOULD + Subject + BV + Object?

When you ask a question like this, the tone goes up at the end. Let’s look at some examples.

Examples:

Should I leave now?

Should we stop drinking?

Should he go to the hospital?

The main difference between closed questions and positive statements is the Subject! In the questions, the Subject goes after “Should”.

You can answer the questions with “yes” or “no”. If you want to answer with a full sentence:

Yes, Subject SHOULD.

No, Subject SHOULD NOT / SHOULDN’T.

Can you change these sentences into questions?

I should eat better food.

He should drink less alcohol.

My mother should save more money.

Maybe you want more information than just “yes” or “no”. In that case, you need to ask an Open Question.

Make open questions with “should”.

To ask an open question, add a question word to the front.

 QUESTION WORD + SHOULD + Subject + BV + Object?

What is a question word? Most question words start with the letter “w”.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, Which, How

Examples:

What should I do?

Where should we go?

When should they do it?

You can answer these questions with positive or negative statements.

What’s the best answer to this question:

What should I bring to Chatuchak Market?

 You should bringing a backpack.

Should you bring a backpack.

You should bring a backpack.

The first answer has a Subject and “should”, but “bringing” is not a Base Verb.

The second answer is not a statement, it is a question. “Should” goes before the Subject.

The third answer is correct!

Different ways to give advice in English.

There are many different ways to give advice in English. Now you know that “should” is a good modal to use, but there are more!

Modals for giving advice.

“Should”, “could”, and “ought to” are all good modals for giving advice. Because they are modals, they use the same grammar rules.

“Should” is very common. Use “should” when you are sure about your advice.

“Could” is also common, but it is not as strong as “should”. Use “could” if you want to give options to your friend.

“Ought to” is not so common, but it is good to know. Use “ought to” when the advice you’re giving is very important.

Finally, there are two good verbs for giving advice. “Suggest” and “recommend”.

 Use “suggest” and “recommend” to give advice.

You can use these verbs together with Nouns or other Verbs to give advice.

Do you have a favorite Thai food? How can you talk about it with your friend?

“I recommend tom yum.”

Or…

“I suggest tom yum.”

These sentences use the noun “tom yum” after the verb. You can “suggest” or “recommend” any noun. You can talk about your favorite hotel, a fun movie, or an exciting video game.

Your friend is hungry, and they want to try a new restaurant. What can you tell them?

“I recommend Sukishi.”

“I suggest MK.”

Maybe your friend wants to do something. You can tell them to do an action by using a verb. If you use a verb together after “suggest” or “recommend”, you need to add “ing”.

“I recommend watching a horror movie.”

“I suggest taking a bus.”

Now, your friend is bored and they don’t know what to do. What advice can you give them?

“I recommend exercising.”

“I suggest reading a good book.”

If you want to make any of these sentences negative, just add “don’t” before the main verb.

“I don’t recommend…” or “I don’t suggest…”

 The difference between “suggest” and “recommend”.

You can use these verbs to give advice, but how are they different? When do you use “suggest”, and when do you use “recommend”?

“Suggest” is not very strong. You can use “suggest” if your advice is an option, but not very important. I like to use “suggest” when I’m giving advice about something I never did. Maybe I heard that a hotel was nice, but I never stayed there. Or maybe I don’t like video games but I know what games are very popular. That’s a good time to use “suggest”.

“Recommend” is stronger. You can use “recommend” if you have experience with the advice that you are giving. You can recommend a restaurant because you ate there. You can recommend a band because you listen to them.

More important vocabulary for giving advice.

When you use the verb “recommend” to give advice, you are giving a “recommendation”. You can use the word “recommendation” like a Noun. So you can “give”, “ask for”, or “hear” recommendations. Sometimes, restaurants will have “recommendations” on their menu. That would be the most popular dish according to the staff.

When you use the verb “suggest” to give advice, you are giving a “suggestion”. You can use “suggestion” just like “recommendation.

Where can you find suggestions and recommendations? What websites do you use? Who do you usually ask?

Make your recommendations and suggestions stronger by using Adverbs.

“Really”, “definitely”, and “probably” can show how strong your advice is. Use these adverbs with modals “should”, “could”, and “ought to”.

“You probably should get a taxi.”

You should definitely buy an umbrella.”

Where does the adverb go? In these sentences, you can put the adverb before or after the modal verb.

You can use adverbs like “strongly”, “highly”, and “fully” with the verbs “recommend” and “suggest”.

“I highly recommend the coffee at Starbucks.”

“I strongly suggest using a screen protector on your phone.”

I hope this was helpful! You now have many different ways to give or ask for advice from friends. Now, I have a bit of advice for you!

If you want to get better at English, what should you do? How can you get better at speaking, reading, and listening?