eslHQ

eslHQ (http://www.eslhq.com/forums/)
-   English Questions (http://www.eslhq.com/forums/esl-forums/english-questions/)
-   -   suggest and shall (http://www.eslhq.com/forums/esl-forums/english-questions/suggest-shall-69901/)

Nightedge Jul 5th, 2015 02:36 am

suggest and shall
 
Is it correct to say

-I suggest that our sales representative shall visit you this Friday.

Usually the verb in the that-clause following suggest/demand/request would be a bare-infinitive or one following should; but when can we use shall, which is found in some older works by famous writers?

susan53 Jul 6th, 2015 02:24 am

Re: suggest and shall
 
No. The most usual version would be :
I suggest that our representative visits you....

The use of the infinitive (I suggest that our representative visit you...) would be very formal - I'm not sure why you say it is the "usual" form: have you checked with a concordancer? I can find very few examples where the infinitive is used rather than the simple present (obviously you can only tell the difference with a third person subject, as here).

If the suggestion was being reported so that second form verbs were being used then should might be used :
I suggested that our representative should visit them...

but I can think of no case where first form shall would be used after the first form suggest - certainly not in contemporary English, and it would sound odd to me in older versions too. I may be wrong there though. What are your examples and what period do they come from? If you can find some then there's the answer to your question : you can use shall after suggest if you're writing in the style of that century.

Nightedge Jul 7th, 2015 11:15 am

Re: suggest and shall
 
Excellent answer. Thank you.

Nightedge Jul 24th, 2015 01:20 pm

Re: suggest and shall
 
Is my sentence correct?

-Just now Prof. Einstein suggested that we'd better postpone the lecture next Monday to a week later so that you can have more time to prepare for the mid-term exam and relax after that.

susan53 Jul 26th, 2015 11:31 am

Re: suggest and shall
 
Yes, it's fine.

Nightedge Jul 26th, 2015 01:05 pm

Re: suggest and shall
 
Good answer. Thank you.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:28 am.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2