1. Advise, Recommend, Suggest…Discuss
Imagine yourself going about your business one day. All of a sudden you bump into a friend who happens to be a non-native English speaker. After the “hi” “hi” exchange your friend says: “(YOUR NAME INSERTED HERE), I’ve always wanted to know the differences in meaning and usage for:
- Advise
- Recommend
- Suggest
I just don’t understand? Aren’t they all the same?”
***
So – what’s your answer, smarty pants?
The difference between those synonyms is the degree to which you want to influence the person.
If you are advising a person, you have a great desire to influence the person’s actions/thoughts. There is less desire behind a recommendation, and even less desire to influence behind a suggestion.
That said, I suggest you put on some pants. Smarty ones.
I totally agree with Genevieve. Let me say further that advise usually refers to decisions that one is making about life, like what class to take, whether or not to take this job…etc whereas recommend relates more to what entree one should order in a restaurant or what movie to choose. I think suggest is similar to recommend but not as much desire to influence, as Genevieve said. I love this game! Give me more!
So using these words in place of each other is just a matter of the speaker’s desire to influence? Is there any right or wrong usages or is it all right? Should a non-native English speaker be careful not to use the word recommend when they meant to suggest something or does it not really matter that much?
at my work in a service order it says, “if you have been advised to attend blah blah blah by occ health then you are entitled to special leave” however the hr department is saying that i have only been suggested to go so therefore have to use my own leave. what do you all think? i know what i do
That is hilarious steve. It sounds like a storyline out of one of Scott Adams’ Dilbert cartoons.
As your academic adviser, I would advise (implies authority to seeker) you to consider carefully the recommendations (implies peer or authority without direct chain of command or official position in seeker’s hierarchy) of those who have already completed the program and found a job rather than grasping at the suggestions (no implication of hierarchy or authority, nor any implied followup of relationship beyond the moment) of people who haven’t even been in Taiwan or those you just happen to meet at the local clubs. (oops, I changed two of them to nouns, that probably won’t help anything…) And thank you, I feel smarter from the waist down already.