Advice and suggestion

I'm impressed with Dr Knowall: he always gives good advice.

His advice is sensible; why don't you follow it?

I'm new to this job; could you give me some advice?

And one piece of advice: no matter what you do, always do your best.

The verb "to advise" is always used with a direct object followed by an infinitive with "to".

His doctor advised him to take proper rest and drink lots of water.

The broker advised me not to buy those shares.

Note that in the negative form "not" goes before "to".

"A suggestion" is a more tentative plan or idea which you put forward for someone's consideration or as a recommendation; its verb form is "to suggest".

"We want to go away this weekend but still have no idea where to go; what shall we do?" "My suggestion is that we go to Hua Hin: we haven't been there for quite a while."

I wonder how we are going to deal with this error; any suggestions?"

Your doctor will most probably suggest you stay in bed for a couple of days.

The electrician suggested new wiring.

There are a few things worth mentioning here about the structure of the sentence, which formally uses a "that" clause with the verb in the subjunctive:

I suggest that he go to Hua Hin.

The electrician suggested that we have new electric wiring done.

More colloquially the periphrastic subjunctive with "should" is used:

The investigator suggested that the witness's whereabouts should be kept secret.

This arises from the now purely legal usage with the indicative, whereby counsel implies that the witness is covering something up:

I suggest to you, Constable, that the defendant was unarmed when you hit him.

By Dr English

drenglish_7@hotmail.com