Hi friends I’m Rachna and I’m back with a new lesson. In today’s lesson I’m gonna
teach you how to use had better. It’s a modal verb. Well, you may have heard it very
rarely or probably not even heard it. You have learnt many modal verbs like should,
would, could in our previous lessons. But in today’s lesson we’re gonna learn had
better. A modal verb used to give advice and suggestions.
But you’re gonna tell me should is also used to give advice or suggestion?
Yes it is, but we are gonna see how had better
is a little different and in what type of situations, you can use had better as a modal
verb to give advice or suggestion. Now you have better tell her everything. Now supposing
I tell someone, you had better tell her everything. I mean that if you don’t tell her, there
is going to be a negative repercussion or consequences that is not going to be really
good. So here if you say, you should tell her everything, also is correct. But when
I want to tell you, that if you don’t do this, there is going to be a negative effect.
Then use had better. Now this is how the modal verb is had better. So it is used to give
advice or suggestion in the present or future. Though it is had, but this is how it is had
better. You never use have better as a modal verb. So remember you use had better in particular
situations, not in general situations. So for example, if I want to give you a general
advice, I would say, you should brush your teeth twice a day. That’s a general suggestion.
I cannot say, you had better brush your teeth twice a day. I will use had better in situations
in particular situations. Something very particular, where I’m telling you, if you don’t do
this, there is going to be negative impact or the outcome is not really going to be favourable.
So when you talk about particular situations, you wanna give an advice or suggestion then
use had better as a modal verb. Now my next sentence, we had better get back to work.
Now think of a situation, your boss is not in office and all of you sit together with
your colleagues, probably just chit chatting, catching up on what you did on last weekend.
And you realize, it’s the time any moment, your boss is gonna come in, so I tell my colleagues,
we had better get back to work. Now why do I say we had better? Because if we don’t
and imagine, my boss walks in and sees us sitting around and chit chatting, I mean I
don’t need to explain the consequences. You must be knowing, what’s gonna happen
next, so I use had better get back to work. To avoid a negative consequences. I say we
had better. So you see, I use had better in this particular situation. It’s not a general
advice that I’m giving or a general situation. In this particular situation to avoid the
negative impact, I say we had better get back to work. So remember had better is used to
give advice in the present and in the future, but in particular situations not general situations.
Rather should I say no general advices in a particular situation? We’d better reach
the airport at 5 or else, we may miss the flight. Now see here it’s very clear, if
we don’t reach at 5, there is going to be a negative impact or consequences. You will
miss the flight, we may miss the flight. So we’d better. Well, here I have contracted
had with we, so you say it as we’d. We’d better reach the airport at 5 or else we may
miss the flight. So to avoid this negative consequence, we had better. So I’m giving
advice in a particular situation. So I use had better. Okay friends, I hope you’ve
understood till here? Now let’s see how we use it in a negative sentence. We’d better
not miss the start of the movie. So here we’d better not. Please remember, you will not
construct a sentence like, we hadn’t better, this is absolutely wrong. You say we had better
not; this is how you use it in the negative. We had better not, so we had better not miss
the start of the movie. So use not in the negative to make a negative sentence with
had better, so had better not, do not use hadn’t better. Please remember this; a lot
of people make this mistake. You’d better not lie to her, if you do lie to her; you
are going to be in great trouble. So you’d better not lie to her. Again I’ve used a
negative not, do not say, you hadn’t better lie to her, that is absolutely incorrect.
You say. You’d better not lie to her. Now how do we make a question out of it? All you
need to do is put had before the subject, like in this case. Had I better speak to John,
before I send the parcel. So I’m asking you is it a good idea? I’m asking for an
advice or a suggestion, to do that, I say, had I better speak to John before I send the
parcel. So had I better. Do not use, do I had better or does I had better, that is absolutely
incorrect. To make a question all you need to do is take had before the subject. In this
case the subject is I, so you use had I better speak to John before I send the parcel. The
next question, had we better leave a note for her on the table. Again if you see, I
have put had before the subject, we, had we better leave a note for her on the table.
Asking you if it is a good option or, is it good suggestion to leave a note for her on
the table? Okay friends this is how we use had better as a modal verb to give advice
or suggestion in a particular situation, when you want to say or when you want to say, if
you do not do this, you have a negative consequence or an impact. So well this brings me to the
end of the lesson. I hope you enjoyed watching it, do put in your comments and queries. I’ll
be back soon with a new lesson. Till then take care and bye.