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English conversation tips | How to use ‘recommend’ & ‘suggest’ | Speak English with confidence - YouTube
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Do you use the verbs 'suggest' and 'recommend' correctly in your conversations?
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Hello and welcome everyone. This is Minoo at
Anglo-Link.
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The verbs 'suggest' and 'recommend' are great verbs
to use in your conversations and discussions.
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But, I often hear my students use them incorrectly.
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So, in today's lesson, I'm going to teach you three situations,
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and then, end with an error correction exercise
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to make you feel confident about using
'recommend' and 'suggest' in your conversations.
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A quick reminder to download my free mini guide,
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where I explain how you can use different listening activities
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to improve your fluency and your confidence to speak English.
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You will find the link to this download in the
description box.
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So, now let's go over to the lesson
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and find out how you can use 'recommend' and 'suggest' correctly,
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starting with situation number 1.
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Okay! Here we are!
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This is the first situation.
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This is where you recommend or suggest an action to someone else.
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For example: Someone says to you:
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We want to have dinner at the Korean restaurant tonight.
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Now, you know that this restaurant is always full in the evenings.
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So, you can share this information with them, and then make a recommendation.
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So you can say:
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They're always full in the evenings.
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I recommend you book your table in advance.
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Now, you can use 'that' to connect the two parts of your sentence:
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I recommend that you book your table in advance.
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It makes it sound more formal.
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In spoken English, we usually drop 'that'.
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Now, it's the same with the verb 'suggest'.
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So, here we have the same situation.
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Someone says to you:
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My internet connection keeps dropping.
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You have had this experience before.
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You share that information, and then make a suggestion.
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You can say:
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Mine did too before I changed providers.
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I suggest you change your provider.
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Again, you can use 'that' to connect the two parts.
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Or, in a more informal conversation, you can drop it:
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I suggest you change your provider.
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Okay, let's look at common mistakes that I often hear in this situation.
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So, remember we are recommending or
suggesting an action to someone else,
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and what I hear many many times are these sentences:
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Let's have a look...
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I recommend you to book your table in advance.
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I recommend you booking your table in advance.
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I suggest you to change your provider.
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I suggest you changing your provider.
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Now, they may sound correct to you, but they're not.
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It's best to avoid these sentences.
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What you're doing here... You're using either for example
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the infinitive here or the gerund.
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Avoid!
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So, let's cross these out.
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All you need to do is to say:
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I recommend...
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That's one part of the sentence.
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And then, we start a new sentence:
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...you book.
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I recommend you book.
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Remember the word 'that'
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that connects the two parts.
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But, we often drop it.
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That's why you hear:
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I recommend you...
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It's not!
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It's: I recommend you book.
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So, get rid of the 'to' here.
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Get rid of the 'ing' here.
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Again, get rid of the 'to' here.
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And, get rid of the 'ing' here.
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Right! No gerund! No infinitive!
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These are two separate phrases, clauses.
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So, let's look at the correct sentences one more time.
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You're recommending an action to someone else:
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I recommend you book your table in advance.
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I suggest you change your provider.
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And, in a more formal situation, if you're writing, you can put the connective 'that' in your sentence.
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Okay! That's for situation number 1.
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Let's look at situation number 2.
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In this situation, you are making a recommendation
or a suggestion.
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You're recommending or suggesting an action still,
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to the group.
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You belong to this group.
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This action will involve you as well.
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So, let's look at the example.
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So, someone says:
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Let's have dinner at the Korean restaurant tonight.
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And you say: Okay!
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But you know that they're always full in the evenings.
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So, now you want to make a recommendation for both of you or the group that's going to this restaurant.
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You can use the same formulation as the previous
situation and say:
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I... So you're part of the group:
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I recommend that we book our table in advance.
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That's possible.
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But, when you belong to the group that you're making the recommendation for,
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we often use the gerund form directly:
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I recommend booking our table in advance.
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And, that's a better way of making this recommendation in this situation.
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And, it's the same for 'suggest'.
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So, here's our example:
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You're recommending an action to the group that you belong to.
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Someone says:
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Our... Our internet connection keeps dropping.
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You know you share this experience with them:
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I know! I think it's our provider.
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And, your choices are the same again:
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I suggest we change our provider.
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Or better:
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I suggest changing our provider.
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So, you can use the same formulation as before:
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I suggest we change...
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Or, go directly to the gerund.
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Right!
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So, that's for situation number 2.
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Let's look at the common mistakes that I hear for this situation.
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So, remember, now you're recommending your action to the group
including yourself.
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What I hear sometimes, which is a mistake is:
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I recommend us booking our table in advance.
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I suggest our changing our provider.
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These words are unnecessary.
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Go directly to the gerund:
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I recommend booking our table.
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I suggest changing our provider.
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So, let's look at the correct sentences:
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I recommend booking our table in advance.
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And...
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I suggest changing.
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Let me underline that for you so you remember.
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I recommend booking...
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I suggest changing...
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Right!
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One little piece of information for you here.
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If you want to make your recommendation or suggestion a bit more polite,
a bit more formal,
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you can add the word 'would'.
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So you'd often hear:
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'I'd recommend' or 'I'd suggest':
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I'd recommend you book your table.
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I'd suggest changing our provider.
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Just a detail here for you.
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Okay!
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That brings us now to situation number 3.
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In situation 3, you are not recommending an action to someone else or to the group,
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but you're recommending something or someone.
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For example:
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The person has said to you:
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We want to have some Asian food tonight.
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And, your reaction can be:
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I recommend the Korean restaurant.
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If you want to make it more formal:
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I'd... or I would recommend the Korean restaurant.
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Or someone has said to you:
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I need to change my internet provider.
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And, you can respond by saying:
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I recommend my provider.
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And then, there are these nice expressions you can add:
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I can recommend my provider.
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Or: I can certainly recommend my provider.
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They are optional.
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So, remember, now you are recommending something or someone.
Not an action!
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So, let's have a look at what the common mistakes I hear are in this situation,
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that is recommending something or someone.
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I often hear:
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I recommend you the Korean restaurant.
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Or:
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I can suggest my internet provider.
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Now! First correction is: Don't use 'you'.
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It's obvious you're talking to the person.
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So, we don't need 'you', just go to 'I recommend',
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and then, what you recommend.
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I recommend the Korean restaurant.
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The second correction we have to make here is to
avoid using the verb 'suggest' in this situation.
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You never 'suggest' something.
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You can only 'recommend' something or someone.
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So, the verb needs to change to 'recommend'.
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And...
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That's it! Yeah:
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I can recommend my internet provider.
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Let's look at the correct sentences then, just to be sure you get this one:
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I recommend the Korean restaurant.
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I can recommend my internet provider.
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Right!
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We've got the three situations.
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Let's look at a quick summary.
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Situation 1 is recommending an action to someone else.
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In this situation, use the following structure:
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I... or I would... I'd... (to be more polite)
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recommend or suggest you do something.
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Add 'that' if you want to make it more formal or
if you're writing.
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Situation number 2 is when you're recommending an action to the group that you belong to.
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You are involved in the action.
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Now, the best formulation is I... or I'd recommend... or
suggest doing something.
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The gerund directly after your verb.
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And, the third situation is recommending something or someone.
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This time, it's not an action.
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And then, you can only use the verb 'recommend'.
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Never use 'suggest'.
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And then, you can say:
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I recommend...
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I'd recommend... (a bit more polite)...
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or: I can recommend...
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You can even say: I can certainly recommend...
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I can definitely recommend...
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And then, you say what it is or who it is that you are recommending.
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Okay! That's the end of the lesson.
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We are now going to do some error correction exercises.
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So, I've got four sentences for you with mistakes to correct.
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Let's look at sentence number 1:
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I suggest you to ask for a refund.
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What's the mistake in this sentence?
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I'm sure you've got this now:
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I suggest you ask for a refund.
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No infinitive:
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I suggest you ask...
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Let's look at the correct sentence to reinforce it:
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I suggest you ask for a refund.
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You can keep the 'that' in if you want.
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Great!
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Sentence number 2:
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What's the problem here:
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I wouldn't recommend us to cut our budget.
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What do you think we need to correct here?
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Okay! Two things:
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This is an extra word we don't need:
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I wouldn't recommend.
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And, what comes after this?
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Because it's for the group, you need to use the gerund form.
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So, let's look at the correct sentence:
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I wouldn't recommend cutting our budget.
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If you want, you can use the other formulation.
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It's longer:
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I wouldn't recommend we cut our budget.
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Or, I wouldn't recommend that we cut our budget.
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That's why we prefer the first one.
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It's shorter.
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In English, the shorter the better.
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Okay!
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So, that's for this.
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Let's look at sentence number 3:
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Which fish dish do you suggest me?
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How can you correct this sentence?
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Again! There are two things you need to do:
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The first thing is to change this verb.
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Remember! We can't use 'suggest' when it's something.
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Now, we're talking about a fish dish.
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So: Which fish dish do you recommend?
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And, we don't need to specify the person.
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It's a conversation.
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You know they know you're asking for the recommendation.
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So, the correct sentence is here:
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Which fish dish do you recommend?
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If you want to make it sound a little more polite,
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you can say:
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Which fish dish would you recommend?
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And finally, sentence number 4:
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I'd recommend you consulting a dietitian.
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What's wrong with this sentence?
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That's an easy correction:
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I'd recommend you consult...
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Remember! Two separate sentences:
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I'd recommend you consult...
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Let's look at the correct sentence:
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I'd recommend you consult a dietitian.
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Or:
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I'd recommend that you consult a dietitian.
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If you want to keep 'that' in there.
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Right!
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That's the end of this lesson.
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There are lots more English lessons and exercises on my YouTube channel,
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and on my online course at
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Anglo-Link.com.
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Don't forget to subscribe and allow notifications to know when my next lesson is online.
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Thank you for watching,
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and I'll see you very soon in my next lesson.
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Goodbye for now!
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