suggest语法

下面这一句来自2022年上海某区二模卷的11选10考题文章：

 

He suggested the BRICS media _____37_____ the bloc's development and actively reflecting economic, cultural, social, and environmental achievements made by the BRICS countries.

答案是popularizing(宣传，推广)。在不理解词意的情况下，可根据两方面线索找到答案：1）词汇方面：popular以及动词后缀ize(以特定方式造成/处理)。2）语法方面：and连接的两个短语分别包含空格单词和reflecting。

 

问题是，本句中的suggest someone doing something并不是suggest的正确用法。本文接下去首先梳理一下suggest的主要用法，然后介绍几种特殊情况，希望以此启发同学们在语法学习中要更加重视语义，最后再回来继续讨论这个例句。

一、suggest的四种主要用法

1）suggest something

在suggest后接作为建议内容的名词，例如：

I suggested an Italian restaurant near the station for the party.

I suggested a walk in the park.

2）suggest + V-ing (doing something)

动名词是名词等价物，例句：

She suggested traveling together for safety since the area was so dangerous.

Mr. Musk also suggested getting rid of advertisements on the site, in a tweet he has since deleted.

Her brother suggests studying harder so she can get into a good university.

I suggest not waiting so long to go to the doctor.

 

3) suggest+ Wh疑问词引导的从句

Could you suggest where I might be able to buy a nice sweater for Mark?

Can anyone suggest how we might attract more people to the next event?

4) suggest+ that从句

在表达建议某人做某事时，常在suggest后接that从句，that也经常可以被省略：

 

I suggest (that) you leave here around four o’clock. The traffic gets very bad from about 4.30 onwards.

I suggest that you memorize sentences instead of grammar rules!

Her mom suggests that she study harder so she can get into a good university.

 

注意从句中的动词使用原形。原因是，在表达强制/授意/建议的部分引语动词后应使用现在时虚拟语气，不做三单变形，也不受主语时态限制。因此，例句3中的动词是get而不是got，例句4用的是study而不是studies。

 

如果建议发生于过去，从句中可以使用情态动词should，不熟悉虚拟语气的同学可能会发现这样更容易理解。

 

Her doctor suggested that she should reduce her working hours and take more exercise.

 

最后，在that从句中表达否定，只需在动词前加上not：

The teacher suggests we not waste time playing video games after school.

  

二、几种特殊情况

1) 使用陈述语气

先看两个例句：

Officials suggested that the blast(爆炸) happened just outside the hotel.

Both American and United(美联航) said they hadn’t seen any notable change in bookings after dropping mask mandates(口罩令) on Monday, though several recent surveys suggested that passengers generally supported the requirements.

 

黑体字部分表明suggest后的从句使用了动词的过去时态，原因是suggest只在给“建议”时使用虚拟语气，而在上面的例句中，suggest的意思是表明、暗示、意味着，因此使用正常的陈述语气。

 

2) 不定式问题

首先，suggest to do是完全错误的，suggest需要某种形式的宾语作为具体的建议内容：名词(短语)、动名词或是从句。

 

其次，suggest somebody to do something在多数情况下也是错误的，如果需要以类似结构表达建议某人做某事，可改用advise。不过，语法问题总是有例外，在特定情况下，suggest sb. to do sth.是合理的表达。想象一下，班里正在筹备一出舞台剧，主演人选竞争激励，老师决定向德高望重的你咨询意见，于是你说：I suggest Tony to play the role. 没错，Tony是你的好朋友，但这不是重点。你的建议是给老师，而不是在教导Tony该做什么。

 

因此，suggest后不能跟to不定式要限定在“向某人建议他/她要做某事”的前提之下。例如，下面的例句中，to不定式是建议内容的修饰语，与suggest无关：

 

No politician has suggested a way to improve the economy.

He suggested several different things to do after dinner.

 

另外，suggest后面直接跟作为介词的to也是完成正常的。例如：

I really love this game and will suggest it to everyone.

再如，在Will Smith在奥斯卡典礼上掌击Chris Rock后，有报道用下面的这句话作为新闻标题，注意其中的虚拟语气：Oscar Brass “Suggested” To Will Smith That He Leave After Chris Rock Slap

三、考卷出错了吗？

 

现在回到本文开头的试题。suggest somebody doing something似乎是个很流行的误解，例如：

 

问题是，高考的文章很多来自专业报刊，一般来说原文不太可能出现这种错误，于是作者找来了原文对照一下：

He suggested that the BRICS media popularize the bloc's development, and actively reflect economic, cultural, social and environmental achievements made by the BRICS countries.

http://www.china.org.cn/world/2019-11/04/content_75384123.htm

原文正确使用了虚拟语气that从句。显然，文章被出题者改写过了。

四、key takeaways

1.  语法学习不能离开语义理解，单纯的背语法规则在好的情况下会遗漏很多知识，在糟糕的情况下会有误导。

2.  高考文章很多都经过了大量缩减和改编，从考试角度或许无可厚非，但从学习角度，不建议同学们把考卷里的文章当作主要的阅读材料。