English · Ethics in Business

Giving advice — should / ought to / had better / if I were you

Should, ought to, had better, if I were you: one warning growing stronger with each step

  • Foreign languages important
  • Literature and philosophy important
  • Experimental sciences important
  • Mathematics important
  • Engineering important
  • Management and economics important

6 minutes

The academic content is in Arabic, as at the BAC and as in the app.

What the syllabus expects from you

  • Giving advice: should/ought to/had better/if I were you

The method

  1. Match the modal to its force: should < ought to ≈ had better < if I were you (more personal)

The common mistakes

  • had better + to (wrong: had better to go)

From the lesson

Ali just discovered that a shipment of counterfeit spare parts is about to go out labeled as genuine. He turns to a coworker and asks, "What do I do?"

The vocabulary

  • had better (من الأفضل أن)
  • if I were you (لو كنت مكانك)

What is not on the syllabus

  • Expressing regret/complaint (previous concept)

Builds on