Verb Recommend+Infinitive Forms?

Hi,
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...

Your American colleagues must all speak the same dialect, but the dialect they speak is apparently not the same as mine. What part of the US are your colleagues from?

- 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.)

Instructor1955Talking 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 Ddoctor recommended him to loose lose weight "

What's your opinion?

Your American colleagues speak a strange variety of American English. 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

CalifJimYou can advise someone to do something, but can neither recommend nor suggest someone to do something, in my opinion.

Then Longman wins again, and Oxford loses! Interesting... There are a lot of strange things and advice in those dictionaries.

CalifJimYou can advise someone to do something, but can neither recommend nor suggest someone to do something, in my opinion.

I second Jim's advice based on 70 years of American conversation.

I thought I'd already posted a reply in this thread. Hmmm, I must have forgotten to hit the 'post' button. At any rate, my reaction was exactly the same as CJ's. However, I've heard a rumor from a handful of Brits that the infinitve version is sometimes used in the UK. I have no idea how widespread it might be, however.

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.

YankeeI thought I'd already posted a reply in this thread. Hmmm, I must have forgotten to hit the 'post' button.

No. You're not going crazy, Yankee! Instructor1955 posted the same question twice. (I wish people would stop doing that -- or if it's a system problem, I wish they'd fix it.)
CJ

I see the two threads have now been merged. [Y]

Kooyeen
The online version of the Cambridge Dictionary apparently agrees with CJ, Avangi and Yankee :


Did you read something different in the Oxford Dictionary?