Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from New York City.
And here's your English teacher, Michael. All right, thank you Johns.
Thanks everyone. This is Happy English Podcast, Episode four seventy two. Three
Phrases with better. I'm sure that you guys know the word better is the
comparative form of good. You know good better best. Well, we have
a number of different phrases in English that use the word better. So for
today's English lesson, let's check him out. Here's one quick thing before we
get started. And no, I'm not trying to sell something here. If
you like this podcast, I'm sure you will love my YouTube channel. Two.
Yes, that's right, I have a YouTube channel too, And right
now my YouTube channel has a little less than seven thousand subscribers, but I'm
really hoping to reach fifty thousand subscribers this year. Can you help me and
subscribe to my YouTube channel. All you need to do is go to YouTube
and look for Happy English and why. Thank you so much for your support.
Now on to today's lesson. First of all, we use the phrase
had better. Had better is generally used in English to give a warning.
Let me give you an example. If it's a cold day, and you
have just taken a shower before you go outside, you had better dry your
hair. You had better dry your hair before you go outside, because if
you don't, you might catch a cold. So had better is used to
give someone a warning. If you don't do that thing, something bad might
happen. Here are some other examples. The doctor told Joe that his health
is at risk, he had better stop smoking. You have an important exam
tomorrow, you had better study for it if you want to get a good
grade. Here is one more important point about had better. Sometimes I hear
people say you had better followed by the preposition too, like you had better
to study for the exam, But using two is actually not correct. You
had better study for the exam. I think the confusion here comes from the
fact that we do use the phrase it's better to, and that's our next
point. We use the phrase it's better to when we want to get give
someone a suggestion. The grammar is it's better to, followed by a base
verb. For example, if you want to travel from Times Square to the
World Trade Center during rush hour, it's better to take a subway than a
bus. It's better to take a subway. This means taking a subway is
better than taking the bus. Here are some other examples. The oyster bar
serves steak as well as seafood, but since it's the oyster bar, I
think it's better to order fish. The weather forecast said we're going to have
snow tomorrow, so I think it's better to stay home and work from home
than it is to drive to the office. In a similar way, we
use the phrase be better off to give someone a suggestion. The grammar is
would be better off, followed by an ing verb. For example, if
you want to travel from Times Square to the World Trade Center during rush hour,
you would be better off taking a subway than a bus. You would
be better off taking a subway than the bus. This also means that taking
a subway is better than taking a bus. Here are some other examples.
This is a seafood restaurant, and even though they have steaks on the menu,
I think you're better off ordering fish. Since it's going to snow tomorrow,
I think I'm better off working from home than trying to drive to the
office. Well that's our English lesson for today. If you want to read
the examples in this lesson, or get word for word transcripts of the Happy
English podcast, just visit Myhappy English dot com and check lesson four seventy two
and by the way, podcast transfer grips up until this lesson will be available
in just a couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience and thanks for studying,
and I'll see you next time at Happy Ideas. This podcast was brought
to you by Happy English. Please visit Myhappy English dot com. Show your
support more Happy English by leading as a reviewer. Get English, Get Happy,
Happy English.