Suggest + subjunctive or not

(B) if the intended meaning is that he made a suggestion (directive) like, "You should buy a car."

(A) can be correct when "I bought a car" is a past tense statement, not a directive; i.e., when he said, "You bought a car."

A negative subjunctive is usually expressed in BrE with shouldn't (as is the positive with should, actually). In AmE it is common to say, "He suggested that

In conversation, I think my most natural form starting "He suggested..." is "He suggested I should/ought to buy a car". If required to choose between your two options, I think I'd more naturally say A. In writing, I would, if I was paying attention, aspire to using B.

For the should-less negative, you could say "He suggested I ought not to buy a car", or all manner of longer versions, su

ferdis(B) if the intended meaning is that he made a suggestion (directive) like, "You should buy a car."

(A) can be correct when "I bought a car" is a past tense statement, not a directive; i.e., when he said, "You bought a car."

Hi Ferdis,

That's what I thought too but yesterday I was reading some units in 'English Grammar in Use'

MichalS
Hi Mr Wordy,

So you say it's possible to say A to mean that "he said that it would be a good idea if I bought a car"?

Yes, that's what I thought you meant by it. Did you mean something else?

No, no - I meant what you said, but I wasn't sure if it is correct.

See, when I studied English at university, I thought w

MichalS
- He suggested that I do sth.

This is the traditionally correct version.

MichalS- He suggested that I did sth.

This is, to me, acceptable in everyday English. In more formal written English I prefer the first version.

See also

Thanks a lot Mr Wordy!

Then I guess I'll just stick to what I was taught at the university.

If somebody else has some comments on that, please consider this topic open to debate.

MichalSWhich form is for you more usual?:

A) He suggested that I bought a car.
B) He suggested that I buy a car. (subjunctive)

B is not only "more usual"; it's the only way I would say it, assuming that "he" is giving advice.

But suggest is not used with the subjunctive when it means 'give the appearance', 'lead

ferdis(A) can be correct when "I bought a car" is a past tense statement, not a directive; i.e., when he said, "You bought a car."

CalifJimB is not only "more usual"; it's the only way I would say it, assuming that "he" is giving advice.

Ok guys, I'm confused. What should we make out of this then:

Here is my learned 2 cents:

If my recolletion is correct, "what do you suggest I should do?" is considered incorrect, although it appears to be grammatical. The words appear in the following list are associated to SUBJECTIVE structures which should not be used with "should", and require the immediate verb to be in its base form. "What do you suggest me to do?" is also incorrect.