Hello taechers
While taking some English grammar tests, I have come across this sentence :
"If you don't already have them, we recommend you buy copies of both if you are serious about learning English. "
I know that's grammatically correct, still, Talking with my American colleagues at work,they were all saying the verb recommend is always followed by an infiniteve verb with "TO". For Example :" The Doctor recommended him to loose weight "
What's your opinion?
Regards
The Instructor1955
While taking some English grammar tests, I have come across this sentence :
"If you don't already have them, we recommend you buy copies of both if you are serious about learning English. "
I know that's grammatically correct, still, Talking with my American colleagues at work,they were all saying the verb recommend is always followed by an infiniteve verb with "TO". For Example :" The Doctor recommended him to loose weight "
What's your opinion?
Regards
The Instructor1955
Comments
it's always difficult to remember the right structures for all those verbs, like "recommend", "advise", "suggest", etc.
One of my dictionaries (Longman) doesn't mention the structure "recommend someone to do something", but another (Oxford) says that structure is ok. So in the end I have no idea what Americans could say...
- The doctor recommended (that) he lose weight. (lose = subjunctive)
- The doctor recommended losing weight.
- The doctor told/advised him to lose weight. (I would not use recommend in this construction, but I suppose some would.)
I recommend them to stop giving grammatical advice!I recommend that they stop giving grammatical advice!You can advise someone to do something, but can neither recommend nor suggest someone to do something, in my opinion.
In fact, you may hear recommend someone to do something, or even see it in writing, but it doesn't strike me as correct.
CJ
I second Jim's advice based on 70 years of American conversation.
My East Coast (US) preferences for the word recommend would be 'recommend+what is being recommended' -OR- 'recommend+that+pronoun/noun+subjunctive':
- I recommended the ABC Hotel to him. (or possibly: I recommended staying at the ABC Hotel.)
- I recommended that he stay at the ABC Hotel.
CJ
Kooyeen
The online version of the Cambridge Dictionary apparently agrees with CJ, Avangi and Yankee
Did you read something different in the Oxford Dictionary?