1.1.- Making informal suggestions.
Have you ever wanted to make a suggestion in English?
There are quite a lot of different ways to express suggestions. Some occur in the affirmative and others in the interrogative form.
Look at these examples:
- Let's have a party this weekend.
- Why don't we change this sofa to that corner?
- We can meet outside the cinema at around 8:45.
- We could discuss the most important issues in our next meeting.
- What about travelling to the south of Spain this Christmas?
- How about a trip to Madrid this weekend?
- Shall I/we take our laptops to the café?
So, the main structures to make suggestions are:
- Let's + verb
- We can/could + verb
- What/How about + verb-ing
- What/How about + noun
- Shall I/We + verb?
- Why don't we + verb?
And the typical responses are:
Accepting:
- Yes, let's do it!
- Great! That's a good idea!
- Yes, we can do it!
- Yes, I'd love to.
Refusing:
- I'm not sure about that.
- No, I'm afraid we can't.
- No, I'd prefer not to, thanks.
- I don't think we could do it.
Of course, the imperative form of the verb is not only used to give orders but also to make suggestions. We studied it in unit one. However, you have to be very careful when you use it because it can often sound quite strong and impolite.
Ejercicio Resuelto
Click to read the Spanish translation.
Autoevaluación
Re-arrange the words given and make suggestions by adding the verb in brackets in the correct form.
Autoevaluación
Put these words into the right order to build a sentence.