Making recommendations and giving advice require appropriate words and sentence structure. In this lesson, we will show you several ways and common words used to make recommendations and to give advice in Spanish. Let's find out!
Making recommendations and giving advice in Spanish
When you want to recommend, suggest, or ask another person to do (or not do) something, the subjunctive is used after the verb of reccomendation or advice.
Common verbs of recommendation and advice in Spanish:
- advise - aconsejar
- suggest - sugerir
- order - ordenar
- let/allow - dejar
- make/force - hacer
- order - mandar
- recommend - recomendar
- suggest - proponer
- say - decir
- beg - rogar
- demand - exigir
- insist - insistir
- forbid - prohibir
- beg - suplicar
See also: Most common Spanish phrases
Here are some examples of using these verbs:
Te aconsejo que me olvides - I suggest that you forget me
Suplico que mi hija tenga más cuidado - I beg my daughter to be more careful
Te propongo que escribas un articulo con lo que sabes de este señor - I suggest you write an article based on what you know about this gentleman
Le sugerimos que visite nuestro sitio regularmente -We suggest that you visit our site regularly
Él recomienda que yo llegue temprano - He recommends that I arrive early
Note:
- In the above sentences, the preposition "que", which means "that" is used after verbs of recommendations and advice, followed by a verb in the subjunctive tense. It is used to seperate the recommender from the recommendation.
- "Te recomiendo" (I recommend) should be used when you are speaking to a person with whom you are very familiar. Use "le recomiendo" to speak in a more formal relationship. You can use it when speaking to your boss or supervisor. The same case for other verbs. For examples: "te sugiero", "le sugiero" (I suggest), "te aconsejo", "le aconsejo" (I advise).
- To make it negative, add "no" in front of the verb of recommendation or advice.
- When giving advice, you can soften the tone by using a conditional form of "deber."
For examples:
Deberían ustedes ser más positivos. You should be more positive
No deberías escoger productos lácteos que son altos en grasas - You shouldn't choose dairy products that are high in fat
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