0

My friend learns English: He said something like, “You had better not to take these pills a lot”.

It sounded off to me. Could you help me explain to him why/what he tried to do?

quest
  • 43
  • 4
  • 1
    [My friend is learning English.] You had better cannot be followed by "to". – Lambie Oct 09 '20 at 14:43
  • 1
    Apart from that unwanted infinitive marker *to, the overall construction isn't particularly idiomatic. Natural alternatives include You'd better not take a lot of these pills* - or even more idiomatically, You'd better not take too many* of these pills* and You'd better not take these pills too often**. – FumbleFingers Oct 09 '20 at 14:51
  • It is idiomatic to say: You better not do x a lot or too much. – Lambie Oct 09 '20 at 15:02
  • Ah. No this really helps. I think I wanted to tell him about this concept of speaking idiomatically; And infinitive markers. – quest Oct 09 '20 at 15:58

0 Answers0