20 ways to give advice in English

Do you only rely on “should” and “have to” when giving advice or making suggestions in English? If you’re ready to add variety to your vocabulary and your English conversations, this is exactly the video for you. Not only do I cover the basics such as should, ought to, had better, and others, but I also teach informal ways to give advice such as “You’re gonna wanna,” “Have you thought about,” “You might wanna consider,” and many more. This is a great lesson for advanced English learners who want to sound fluent and natural when speaking English. Test your understanding with the quiz at If you liked this video, I’m sure you’ll like these other videos I’ve done, so why not watch them now and take your learning further? 1. 30 Phrasal Verb Commands: 2. 4 types of ’HOW’ questions in English: TRANSCRIPT Hey, everyone. I’m Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on twenty ways to give advice in English. This lesson is intended for intermediate-level English learners, so some of the things I will review in this lesson, specifically the modals section, I will expect that you’re already familiar with these words-okay?-and their usages. If you’re not familiar with the modals that I give you today, we have a lot of lessons on engVid that discuss: “have to“, “had better“, “must“, “should“, etc. So, check out those lessons and become more familiar with modals. However, I’m expecting that you are already familiar with them for this category. You noticed I said: “category“, because I have four cate-... Four? Four categories on the board, here. So, we have modals, we have conditionals, we have formal verbs, and we have casual expressions. So, you are probably familiar with the modals, maybe the conditionals, and for sure you’ve seen, like: “suggest“, “recommend“, etc., but this casual section is probably new for quite a few of you. But let’s not get too far, and start from the beginning. So, first: Modals. You have a wide variety to choose from when you’re giving advice in English. We’ll start from the top: “You have to...“ So, if you are telling someone that they have to do something, this is an obligation. Okay? They don’t have a choice. So: “I lost my passport. Oh my goodness. What do I do?“ You can say: “Okay, you have to go to the passport office“ or “You have to get a new one.“ Okay? This is my advice to you. It’s your obligation to do this. “You had better...“ Okay? So: -“Okay, I lost my passport.“ -“You’d better go to the passport office“ or “You’d better report that to the police“, maybe if it was stolen by someone and you saw the person running. So: “You’d better...“ as a reminder, this means, you know, it’s a strong advice and there will be negative consequences if you don’t follow this action. All right, so we have: “You should...“ and “You ought to...“ These are in the same family. Right? So, these are, like, well, advice: “I think it’s a good idea for you to do this“. -“I always feel tired.“ -“You should sleep more.“ -“I always feel tired.“ -“Okay, well, you ought to eat better.“ Okay? Or: “Tell me what you’re eating. You ought to eat better. You should eat better.“ When you are speaking: “You ought to“, you can also say: “You oughta“. So, repeat after me: “You oughta“. “You oughta sleep more.“ Good. All right? And then: “You could...“ So, “You could...“ means: “Well, this is an option.“ I’m not saying you should, I’m not saying you have to. I’m saying: “Hey. Have you considered this option?“ That’s over there. We’ll talk about that later, too. So: “You could...“ means, like, this is a possibility. This is an option. Like: -“Ah, I don’t know what to get from the lunch menu.“ -“I don’t know. Like, what do you feel like?“ -“I don’t know. Like something that has protein.“ -“Okay, well, you could get the steak, or you could get a hamburger, or you could get something else with protein.“ So you’re giving them options. You’re advising them of what is possible. Modals, we’re okay? So many of you are like: “Alex, I... I don’t know what’s going on.“ Check out the other modal videos. Next, let’s go to conditionals. So, let’s start with the most common, like, advice conditional where you say: “If I were you...“ I am not you; that is impossible. Maybe in the future that’s something that is possible, but for now it’s not possible. So, you’re using the second conditional in most of these. So: “If I were you, I’d“... “I’d“ means “I would“. So, second conditional you always have the past form of a verb. So, here you have: “If I were you, I would do something.“ It’s like: -“Uh-oh. I think I lost my wallet.“ -“Well, if I were you, I would retrace your steps“. “To retrace your steps“ means to go back and follow your steps; where you went before. Right? […]