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. And as always, you can tell
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Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to
seeing you next time.
