Hi Torsten/Alan!
I have a question about the verb “SUGGEST”.
According to the English Grammar you can use the verb suggest in these following patterns:
Jane suggested that I (should) buy a car.
Jane suggested that I bought a car.
but never use it in this pattern:
Jane suggested me to buy a car.
What do you suggest us to do?
Is it a big mistake in speaking language? I am sure I’ve heard this construction a lot.
Thank you for your attention!
Dear Learner, You are definitely on the safe side if you use the verb ‘to suggest’ the way your dictionary suggests. (just a little pun) 
To me, the object pronoun (me, him, us, them…) after ‘suggest’ sounds rather strange.
Let’s see what Alan says…[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: A Turandot scene[YSaerTTEW443543]
So you are suggesting that I should use it this way?
ok… let?s wait for Alan’s reply
thank you!
Hi Learner,
On the matter of ‘suggest’ I support both Torsten and your grammar book. The examples that you give of ‘suggest’ + direct objects are not acceptable. When you think about what the word actually means, it should make more sense. You can therefore ‘ask/request/tell/’ someone to do something because there is a direct connection between the ‘asker’ ‘requester’ and ‘teller’ and the object. At the same time you can ‘offer/agree/promise’ TO do something’ But when it comes to ‘suggest’ there is an indirectness about the act of ‘suggesting’ and that is why we have this construction: ‘suggest (that) someone does something’ It’s not necessary to use ‘should’ or ‘that’ in the sentence. So we have this sort of use in the following sentences:
As it was a sunny day, I suggested we went for a swim.
I can see you’re not well and so I suggest you see a doctor
Remember also that ‘suggest’ can be used with the ‘ing’ form of another verb as in this sentence:
Nobody knew what to do until at last someone suggested GOING there by taxi
Hope this helps,
Best wishes
Alan
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your explanation! Yes, it helped a lot!
Thank you both, Alan and Torsten. Really fast replies!!
Hello Alan,
After I read this thread I searched for more examples and found this page:
edufind.com/ENGLISH/GRAMMAR/rep5.cfm (check the examples section at the bottom).
And there is one of the examples:
There is the first form of the verb ‘see’.
While in your example you use the second form of the verb ‘go’:
Could you explain the difference to me?
Hi,
Is it almost 5 years since I wrote that! Anyhow, back to the question about the difference. After suggest (that) we use the so-called mandative subjunctive asking for a particular action and this is also true for similar verbs like: order/propose/require/recommend and so on. Your question is about why present subjunctive and why past subjunctive. In the first example ‘suggest I see’ there is perhaps an immediacy and the speaker is thinking: Well, that’s probably a good idea, I really must think about it. In my example ‘we went for a swim’ the speaker is putting forward the idea of a swim on the basis of: ‘I don’t really mind if we do or don’t, it’s up to you.’
Alan
Thanks Alan!
If I understood right, these sentences must be correct:
Well done to us both!
Alan
Mr Alan, sorry for the disturbance first of all.
Could you help a little?
I’ve seen your topic about using ‘suggest’ and I’m being confused after that.
As I know (from "English grammar in use - intermediate’) we’ve got 3 cases of using this word:
But according to you we can say ‘I suggest we went’, can’t we?
Or it depends on the time form of the ‘suggest’? e.g. ‘I suggested we went’? Or I must’ve mixed something up…
Could you explain all possible cases more thoroughly? I’s really going to help! Thanks a lot!
Hi,
The last example ‘I suggest we went’ is not exactly what I wrote. I wrote ‘I suggested’. The form ‘went’ is an example of the subjunctive or unreal past.
Alan
well, what is the difference between “I suggest we go” and “I suggested we went”?
Hi Sergey
In American English, it would be typical to say both “We have nothing to do, so I suggest we go shopping” AND “My friend and I had nothing to do so I suggested we go shopping”.
“I suggested (that) we go shopping” is basically reported speech, but the present rather than the past subjunctive is typically used in AmE:
Direct speech = “Let’s go shopping.” / “Why don’t we go shopping?” /“I think we should go shopping.” / “I suggest we go shopping.”
Reported speech = She suggested that we go shopping.
Direct speech = “I think you should go home and get some rest.” / “Why don’t you go home and get some rest?”
Reported speech = She suggested (that) I go home and get some rest.
.
.
In American English the use of the past form of a verb after “suggested” would be more likely when a suggestion is not specifically reported speech. For example, you might find it in a narration of events in the past:
Talking about the present:
The clouds that I can see in the distance suggest that it is going to rain.
Talking about the past:
The clouds that I could see in the distance suggested that it was going to rain.
Talking about the present:
That suitcase next to the door suggests he is leaving.
Talking about the past:
The suitcase next to the door suggested he was leaving.
Or the past form of a verb might be used after “suggested” when certain expressions are used:
Direct speech: “Don’t you think it is time you headed home?”
Reported speech: She suggested it was time I headed home.
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This site also provides information about the subjunctive:
britishcouncil.org/learnengl … nctive.htm
This is how I see it:
As I understand Alan’s posts, typical British usage tends to be somewhat different from American usage – particularly as in examples 2a. and 2b above.
.
Hi, Amy
Very interesting.
If I understood you correctly, if I put forward an idea (say, in the past), I have to put it this way: It was a sunny day and I suggested we go for a swim (and never went), right ?
But if I want to use “suggest” in the sense of “to mean”, I would say something like this: Her scolding me suggested I had to do the dishes myself
Thank you !
Hi Alex
Yes, that is the sort of usage tendency I’ve heard everywhere I’ve ever lived in the US.
A sentence such as “She suggested we went swimming” sounds weird to my American ears. It sounds as if it might mean something similar to “It was her opinion that we had (already) gone swimming.”
.
Hi Alan,
I recently came across a sentence that has been bothering me ever-since. The sentence goes like ‘Hi friends, SUGGEST me some music that i can download from the site’. Is this correct or should ‘Suggest to me’ be used here?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Linus,
‘Suggest me’ is just about acceptable. By that I mean it is clear what is meant but the omission of ‘to’ would be more usual in conversation. The problem is possibly that ‘suggest’ usually takes a direct object and when you hear ‘suggest me’ spoken, it takes a moment to realise that ‘me’ is the indirect object.
Any use?
Alan
Hi Alan,
Thanks for the prompt response… That answers my concern, thank you very much. I was trying to make someone understand the same, but had failed to. Thanks again… 
Hullo Alan,
well, my name is Paul and I have just created an account. I’ll create my introduction as soon as I can.
I would like to ask you about this topic, if you don’t mind. I’m studying English and my teacher told us (the students) about the proper use of Suggest, and named the following example:
He suggested OUR going to the new cinema.
I’ve been looking up for this expression without any success.
Could you please explain this to me?
Thanks in advance!
Paul.
It is a less straightforward way of saying, ‘he suggested that we should go to the new cinema’.