Making And Responding To Suggestions
Imagine that you haven鈥檛 seen a good friend in a month. In a telephone call, your friend tells you she would like to get together for dinner but can鈥檛 think of a restaurant to go to. So, you offer an idea. I鈥檇 love to have dinner on Friday but I鈥檓 not sure where. How about we go to Chez Philip? I haven鈥檛 been there in over a year. The phrase How about is one common way to make a friendly suggestion in English. To make a suggestion means to offer an idea or plan for someone to think about. You probably already know a few ways to make suggestions in English, using words such as could or should. But, on this Everyday Grammar program, we鈥檒l talk about common phrases you can use for making friendly suggestions. We use many of these phrases in question form. Let鈥檚 start by talking a little more about the phrase How about. When you ask a question using How about, you are asking someone if they agree with what you are suggesting.
There are two structures for using this phrase. How about we go to Chez Philip? In this example, the subject is we, and the verb is go. How about going to Chez Philip? In this example, the subject is still we, although is not directly stated. Instead, the subject is implied. And, going is the gerund form of the verb go. How about starting a group for English learners? The phrase What about is very similar to How about. What about going to Chez Philip? American English than in other types of English. Something that English learners will notice is that native English speakers often leave out both the subject and verb when we use What about and How about to make suggestions. How about Chez Philip? What about Chez Philip? Why don鈥檛 is very similar to How about and What about. The difference here is that we ask the question using the negative don鈥檛. Why don鈥檛 we go to Chez Philip? Why not also uses the negative not.
But this phrase is a little different from the other phrases. It is usually used to make more general suggestions. Advertisers often use Why not for selling products or services. Why not treat yourself to a Caribbean holiday? In this example, the subject is you, but it is not directly stated. And, the verb is treat. Using Shall is another way to make a suggestion. However, it sounds a lot more formal and is more common in British English than American English. Shall we go to Chez Philip? One thing to note when using Shall to make suggestions: it is only used with the subjects I and we. We would not say, Shall you to offer an idea. Sometimes, suggestions are expressed in statements instead of questions, such as with the phrase Let鈥檚. Let鈥檚 is a contraction for the words let us. It is used to tell someone what you want to do with them. Let鈥檚 go to Chez Philip! In this sentence, the subject is us. So, how do you respond to friendly suggestions? You can either accept or decline. That鈥檚 a good/great idea! When you decline a suggestion, you may want to then politely suggest something else. I鈥檓 not sure. Chez Philip is not my favorite. How about Fearless Farmers? Making and responding to suggestions in English takes practice. But it鈥檚 one of the more fun things you can do with a classmate, friend or family member. You can also practice in our comments section. Try using a few of the phrases you learned today to make a friendly suggestion. Alice Bryant wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
You can drive around it by slipping the clutch slightly from a stop, keeping the revs up, or downshifting earlier than you might in something with more than the Boxster S's 2.5 liters of displacement. WHAT WENT WRONG: Shortly after its 20,000-mile update, our car developed a series of cooling woes. It started with intermittent overheating and low coolant, along with the saccharine stink of antifreeze. The dealer diagnosed a leak in the hose coming off the coolant reservoir and replaced it under warranty. That addressed the overheating, but we couldn't shake the scent. We mentioned this at the 30,000-mile service, during which the tech discovered seepage from the water pump. 751), the dealer sent us on our way until the replacement part arrived. We returned the following week for what we thought would be a single-day visit. It ended up being 13 days before we drove our Boxster again.