How to recommend or give advice in Spanish.

by Alba Castro

We've learnt how to give our opinion in Spanish but let's go a little further.

You may be in the situation of wanting to give advice or recommend something to someone, maybe a place in your city, maybe a meal, or a movie, or a teacher (wink, wink!).

This is a very good writing/speaking practice for beginner or intermediate students.

Let's see some expressions:

Puedes + infinitive*

  • You can + to do something

    Ex: Puedes comer en este restaurante - You can eat in this restaurant.

You can change the verb poder to refer to whoever you want:

Podemos comer - We can eat.

Podéis ir - You guys can go.

NOTE: Remember, an infinitive is "TO do" something (to eat, to buy, to walk...). In Spanish it ends in -ar, -er or -ir.

Te recomiendo + noun/infinitive

  • I recommend you + something/ to do something

    Ex: Te recomiendo ver esta película - I recommend you watch this movie.

    or Te recomiendo esta película - I recommend you this movie.

You can adapt the indirect object pronoun (te in this case) to whoever you're talking to.

Os recomiendo la paella - I recommend you guys the paella.

Hay + place/thing

  • There is + place/thing

Ex: Hay un castillo a diez minutos de aquí - There's a castle 10min away from here.

Ex2: Hay un pueblo muy bonito en la costa - There's a very nice town in the coast.

You can complement this with:

Está en ...

Is in...

+

Las afueras - the outskirts

El centro - the center

El centro histórico - The historical center

A .... de aquí - ...min/h from here (just like in the first example).

Si quieres + infinitive

  • If you want + to do something

Ex: Si quieres ver música en vivo puedes ir a este bar - If you want to see live music you can go to this bar.

Of course, again, you can adapt to whoever you're talking to:

Si queréis ver arte os recomiendo ir al museo del Prado - If you guys want to see art, I recommend you to go to the Prado museum.

As you can see you can start the sentence with this expression and finish it with any of the first three to give a very complete recommendation catered to the person you're talking to.

Deberías + infinitive

  • You should + do something

Deberías ir al acuarium - You should go to the acuarium.

Again, if you're talking to more than one people use Deberíais - you guys should.

Si fuera tú + conditional

  • If I were you I would...

Ex: Si fuera tú iría al estadio - If I were you I'd go to the stadium.

Ex2: Si fuera vosotros, iría a la playa - If I were you I'd go to the beach.

This is for the advanced students, as it includes subjunctive as well as conditional.

And those are the most common ways to give an advice or a recommendation!

Hope you liked it!