Making Suggestions
Making Suggestions
Suggesting something to someone else pulls together two things you already know: the conditional's softening effect from the polite-request lesson, and the subjunctive's someone-else-should-act trigger.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
¿Por qué no...? and ¿qué tal si...? soften a suggestion
¿por qué no vamos? (why don't we go?), ¿qué tal si comemos? (what if we eat?)
why don't we go? / what if we eat? — the same rhetorical-question suggestion style
Spanish and English both soften suggestions by phrasing them as questions rather than direct commands — this is one grammar point where your existing English instinct transfers almost directly, phrase for phrase.
Sugerir que triggers the subjunctive, like querer que did
sugiero que vayamos temprano (I suggest we go early) — vayamos is subjunctive
I suggest we go early — the plain verb form, no marking
Sugerir (to suggest) behaves exactly like querer from your earlier wishes-and-doubts lesson: whenever the suggestion is about someone else's action, the second verb goes into the subjunctive. If you've internalized querer que, sugerir que is the identical pattern with new vocabulary.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- why don't we go?
- English
- what if we eat?
- English
- I suggest we go
- English
- we could
- English
- it would be a good idea
- English
- what if...?
- English
- I recommend that you
- English
- we should
- English
- what do you think?
- English
- it's worth it