Grammar Tip 23: Suggest

Which of these sentences sounds OK to you?

1. She suggested me to try Portugal for a holiday this year.
2. She suggested to me to try Portugal for a holiday this year.
3. She suggested that I should try Portugal for a holiday this year.
4. She suggested I try Portugal for a holiday this year.

Well done if you said 'sentences 3 and 4 are correct'. But why?

Suggest is a verb which can't be followed by a direct object personal pronoun (me, him, her, you, them). So example 1 is not good.

The indirect personal pronoun 'to me' can be used with 'suggest' - so sentence 2 is OK at the beginning. But suggest is usually not followed by an infinitive. So using to try after suggest does not work well.

Sentence 3 is correct. It uses a that clause with should. Sentence 4 is also correct. It is the same as 3, but that and should are deleted.

Its a Subjunctive!

In example 4, the verb is in the subjunctive. This means that the verb does not change, it remains in the infinitive. So we could change the pronouns:

We suggested that he try.....
They suggested that she try....
She suggested that they try.....

and the verb 'try' remains the same. In each case 'that' could be deleted.

Note: it is possible to put 'try' into the past tense. This is no longer subjunctive but normal reported speech. (See grammar tip 24 for more on reported speech.)

She suggested I tried Portugal.....

Gerund Again....

It is possible to use a gerund after 'suggest':

She suggested my trying Portugal this year.

But it sounds rather formal and is not as common as the examples 3 and 4 above.

Other Verbs

Look at for propose, explain and demand. These verbs also do not take a direct object personal pronoun like 'me'.