# EN: recommend + V-ing / subjunctive / to-infinitive



## ptite_flor

Hi !

When will you use "Recommend + V" and "Recommend + ing"? Which form is the most correct?

Thanks a lot


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## jierbe31

Hello,

I believe both forms are correct.

Personally I would use:

- recommend somebody to do something

- recommend doing something

Still wait for the natives' input.


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## Ansonesque

Bonjour,

Je dirais que les deux sont corrects grammaticalement, mais la première phrase s'entend peut-être mieux comme,  _recommend that somebody do something._:

Par Exemple:

_I recommend that you see a doctor..._

versus

_I recommend you seeing a doctor..._

mais tous les deux vont, dirais-je...

l'on pourrait dire aussi, 

_I would recommend seeing a doctor... _(où la personne qui devrait consulter le médecin est bien compris...)

J'espére d'avoir aidé un peu


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## Chouquette

Bonjour,

Je lis deux phrases où se trouve le verbe 'to recommend' avec le verbe qui suit sans 'to' et l'autre phrase -ing?

I highly *recommend* you *prepare* well for this test.

I *recommended going* away for the weekend.

Dans quel cas met-on le verbe sans 'to' et/ou avec -ing?

Je vous remercie par avance de vos explications.

Chouquette.


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## Maître Capello

Chouquette said:


> I highly *recommend* (that) you *prepare* well for this test.
> I *recommended going* away for the weekend.


Dans la première phrase, l'équivalent français est _je recommande que_ (+ subordonnée) alors que la seconde est _je recommande de_ (+ inf.)… C'est sans doute l'ellipse du _that_ qui t'as déstabilisée…


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## Cristina Moreno

La première phrase est "I highly recommend that you prepare well for this test" mais le "that" est éliminé (ça se fait très souvent)

Quant à la deuxième phrase, "to recommend" est suivi par -ing quand il n'est pas séparé du participe (comme dans ton exemple), mais il est suivi par to+infinitif quand il est séparé du participe par un pronom par exemple (He recommended us to stay far)

Attends la réponse des natifs pour t'assurer plus!


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## Adolfo De Coene

Il est interressant de noter que:
I highly *recommend* you *prepare* well for this test. <> I highly recommend preparing well for this test.
I *recommended going* away for the weekend. <> I recommend you go away for the week-end.


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## Avignonais

Yes, they are very similar. One difference is that recommend (that) you prepare... is more specific and more direct. Could even be taken as an order.

With the gerund, it really is a recommendation or suggestion. 

I don't know. The difference is subtle. Would like to see other anglophones' opinion.


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## Maître Capello

I agree with you because with the gerund you don't specify the subject. In fact  _I recommend going away for the weekend_ could also mean _I recommend *we* go away for the weekend_, couldn't it?


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## dicomec

I think I would prefer, I recommend that (but many omit the "that".
In the past, I recommended his going away, or I recommended that he go away,
But if we were talking and both understood the context, i.e. the subject, I might simply say, I recommended going away...
That is, Charlo wasn't feeling well, and was tired, so I recommended (his) going away for a few days.
Personally, I still prefer "that" or "his" or "her" to clarify and complete the pharase.


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## Kelly B

To recommend that you go away: mieux lorsqu'on parle de cette fois çi. Il vous faut bien évidemment un congé...!
To recommend going away: mieux lorsqu'on la considère une bonne idée en générale. Sortir le weekend est géniale.


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## Maître Capello

dicomec said:


> I recommended (his) going away for a few days.


I learned that syntax at school – I mean _recommend *his* going…_ – but I must admit I've never actually heard it and seldom read it. Is it just me or is it a phrase which isn't really used anymore? Or is it simply considered formal language and hence barely used in everyday speech?


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## james_san

"I recommend his going away.." does make sense, but I would never use it. It sounds very formal.
"I recommend (that) he go away.." sounds a little better.
"I would recommend he went away for the weekend" also sounds good, although I can't explain why I would use went (past tense?) here.


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## Canard

As a general rule for spoken American English on this little aside, we seem to prefer just a pronoun instead of a possessive one for these kinds of phrases:
I recommend *him* going away to a private home.
Are you angry about *him* playing loud music all night?

etc


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## Maître Capello

You're saying it is *spoken* AE. Is it widespread?

Anyway, what about _recommend *to go* away_ vs _recommend *going* away_?


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## Avignonais

Yup, this is a common one grammarians love to correct. Many AE speakers will say: I recommend him going away. And they will be corrected by purists to say: I recommend HIS going away. 

I recommend just learning the correct form: HIS.

Maître, it is quite common. Also, we don't use recommend with TO + Infinitive. So, recommend to go away is not correct


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## Canard

Avignonais: But if you go around saying "I don't like his staying out so late", you'll sound unnatural and foreign to 99% of AE speakers  I recommend learning what is natural and correct in every situation except extremely formal gatherings and essays, regardless of what grammarians say.


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## Areyou Crazy

you can use ' i recommended that he go away'
very good nestcepas?? Don't let anyone say the subjunctive doesn't exist!
They use it a lot in America and Ireland (apparently)


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## Canard

Sorry to derail the thread, but let's put it this way: some things like this will sound *wrong*, not just stilted, despite (again) what formal grammar dictates. It's not always possible to reconcile prescriptivist standards with the actual spoken word. 
As a native speaker, I do not recommend using a possessive pronoun in these situations 99% of the time, unless you're dealing in stately/formal affairs or writing a thesis, in which case a reformulation would probably be better anyway.

It's similar to the "than they/them" thing: grammar dictates "I'm better than they", but no American alive is going to say that on the spur of the moment, instead choosing "I'm better than them".

Which one you choose determines if you talk like a book or a person 

Areyou_crazy: The subjunctive is falling out of favor in America. Though some contexts still have it without question ("I request that he be there"), the most common ones are losing it ("If I were" is steadily becoming "If I was")


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## Areyou Crazy

I have to disagree Canard . Depending on where you are in the world you will hear one or the other. It is perhaps more common in England but I wouldn't laugh at my friends for using that structure and you don't want to know the occuations of some of them! In England at least the structure chosen varies widely according to dialect etc..


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## Canard

Which structure are we talking about?  (keep in mind I'm a speaker of AE only)


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## Areyou Crazy

i think it was ' i don't like his staying out so late'
there is nothing at all strange, in my opinion, with that structure!


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## Canard

It must be a British English thing then, since here it sounds like a stern old lady saying it


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## Avignonais

Some of us might be stern old ladies. 

In AE I do hear the possessive version also. Though, you are right in speech, the simple pronoun is quite common.


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## Adolfo De Coene

Would it make anything clearer if we were to change the verb to:
I do not like his cooking - painting - thinking ...
And 
I do not like him (to be) cooking - painting - thinking ...

I think all these are possibilities with a definite change of meaning.


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## englishman

Maître Capello said:


> I learned that syntax at school – I mean _recommend *his* going…_  – but I must admit I've never actually heard it and seldom read it. Is  it just me or is it a phrase which isn't really used anymore? Or is it  simply considered formal language and hence barely used in everyday  speech?


It's perfectly good English and used fairly widely in BE. I try to use it exclusively (as opposed to "him going").


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## Avignonais

Englishman, good comments in the other thread. 

As for Adolfo De Coene's examples. Good illustration of differences. However, I am likely to write: 
I do not like *for* him to be cooking. 
OR I do not like for him to cook. 
OR I do not like the fact that he cooks. 
OR I do not like that he cooks. (Depending on what I mean).


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## Sprecan

Maître Capello said:


> So, rephrasing my question, what is the difference (if any) between _advise him to go away_ and _advise his going away_?



Just to add my tuppence worth, there is an importance difference between your two phrases here.

'I advised him to go away' means you spoke to him and gave him this advice directly; whereas 'I advised his going away' could equally mean that you spoke to his wife in confidence and suggested this might be a good idea as he'd been looking a bit peaky...


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## omahieu

james_san said:


> "I would recommend he went away for the weekend" also sounds good, although I can't explain why I would use went (past tense?) here.



I suppose because 'would' is formally the preterit of 'will'.


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## Canard

I wouldn't use the past tense in that phrase, it sounds like a mistake to me.

I'd recommend he *go* away for the weekend.


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## Hese

Do you ever say "I recommend you to wash your car"?
My grammar book states: the infinitive is used when someone advises, allows of forbids a person to do something in a particular case.
The gerund is used when someone advises, allows or forbids something in general.
But an American friend of mine told me not to use "recommend to do" and to say recommend doing instead. What do you think?


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## cropje_jnr

I would say either "I recommend *that* you wash your car" or "I recommended washing your car".

Regardless of whether the infinitive is correct or not, it sounds awkward.


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## Suehil

'Recommend' is transitive so it needs a noun or noun clause as object.  
"I advise you to wash" or "I expect you to wash", but 
"I recommend that you wash".


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## EdCalgary

It seems this thread has missed the point that a clause of recommendation or command is one of the few places in English where the subjunctive mode is retained.  The example uses 2nd person, which is not a good example because indicative and subjunctive are the same.  One must use 3rd person singular because that is the only verb form that changes between indicative and subjunctive.  

You would see this construction in an official proposal, perhaps as a list of recommendations before city council.  The "that" is optional.  I recommend (that): he spend $100,000 ; it take no more than a year ; she go to a higher level of government for funding.  Indicative forms would be "spends", "takes" and "goes" but these would be incorrect since the subjunctive is required, and would sound wrong to most English speakers.

Hence the construction you are looking for, and the one recommended earlier in the trail without explanation, is:

I recommend (that) 
you wash his/ he wash his / they wash his / we wash his
car.

By the way, "I recommend washing your car" sounds fine and is correct, however it is very hard to apply to anything other than 2nd person, where it is clear who is being addressed.  If you say "I recommend washing his car", then it is not clear who you think should wash the car because the first pronoun in the subordinate clause is missing, i.e., implied.  If you are not really recommending action on somebody's part, only observing that the car is dirty, it would be better to say "That car needs to be / should be washed.


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