Confusing words 4
Suggest, recommend and advise
Three words that learners often find confusing are “suggest”, “recommend” and “advise”. Let me see if I can help you understand the differences in the meaning and the grammar.
Meaning
First of all, they have a similar meaning but they’re not exactly the same.
Suggest
When you suggest something (or make a suggestion), you tell other people your idea for them to think about. You’re not telling them what to do. You’re just giving them an idea.
Recommend
When you recommend something or somebody, it’s based on your personal experience. You recommend something or somebody that you like or that you think the other person will like.
Advise
When you advise a person, you tell them what you think they should do. For example, doctors advise their patients, parents advise their children and teachers advise their students.
And you should also remember that “advise” is a verb but “advice” is a noun.
Grammar
Secondly, there are some differences in grammar and sentence structure when we use these words.
Most problems happen when learners translate word for word from their first language. In English, the sentence structure might be different from in your language.
“Suggest” and “recommend” follow similar patterns but “advise” is different, so this also causes problems.
Suggest
Here are a couple of mistakes to avoid and what you should say instead.
Mistake 1
Don’t say:
❌ He suggested to read more.
We use the -ing form here, not the infinitive.
So instead, you should say suggest + ___ing:
✔️ He suggested reading more.
Mistake 2
Don’t say:
❌ He suggested me to read more.
Instead, you should say:
✔️ He suggested that I read more.
or
✔️ He suggested I read more.
The correct structure is:
suggest (+that) + subject + verb
You can also say:
✔️ He suggested I should read more.
Plus you can say:
suggest + noun:
✔️ I suggested this book.
suggest + pronoun:
✔️ I suggested it.
Recommend
The grammar for “recommend” is very similar to the grammar for “suggest”. The common mistakes are similar too!
Here are a couple of mistakes to avoid and what you should say instead.
Mistake 1
Don’t say:
❌ I recommend to read more if you want to build your vocabulary.
We use the -ing form here, not the infinitive.
So instead, you should say recommend + ___ing:
✔️ I recommend reading more if you want to build your vocabulary.
Mistake 2
Don’t say:
❌ He recommended me to read this book.
Instead, you should say:
✔️ He recommended that I read this book.
or
✔️ He recommended I read this book.
The correct structure is:
recommend (+that) + subject + verb
You can also say:
✔️ He recommended I should read this book.
Plus you can say:
recommend + noun:
✔️ He recommended this book.
recommend + pronoun:
✔️ He recommended it.
Advise
Now let’s look at “advise”. This one is a bit different.
advise + somebody + to + infinitive + something
✔️ I advise you to read more.
✔️ I advise you to read this book.
✔️ I advised him to read this book.
✔️ The doctor advised him to exercise more.
advise + somebody + that + pronoun + should + infinitive + something
✔️ I advised him that he should read this book.
✔️ I advise everyone that they should read more.
✔️ The doctor advised him that he should exercise more.
Final comparison
So let’s compare advise, suggest and recommend.
With -ing:
✔️ I suggest reading more.
✔️ I recommend reading more.
✔️ I advise reading more.
With “me”:
❌ He suggested me to read this book.
❌ He recommended me to read this book.
✔️ He advised me to read this book.
With (or without) that:
✔️ He suggested (that) I read this book.
✔️ He recommended (that) I read this book.
✔️ He advised (that) I exercise more.
✔️ He advised ME (that) I SHOULD exercise more. (Especially in British English)
More information
There are many more ways to use these three words. I haven’t given you all the possible meanings or all the possible grammar patterns. I’ve just given you the most important information or this would be a very long post!
If you want to know more, I highly recommend the Longman Dictionary. There are many other great dictionaries but I think Longman is particularly good for example sentences and there’s a good grammar section on each of these three words.
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