Name: 925 English Lesson 20 - How to Give Advice in English | Business English
Uploaded: 2026-01-14T17:18:07.000Z
Duration: 8 min 11 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Present continuous

You're learning with nine to five English Business English for the workplace.

Hi, Tim here with another 9 to 5 English lesson.

To-infinitive

In today's lesson, we're going to learn how to ask for and give advice.

And when you need help, you shouldn't be afraid to ask for advice.

Maybe you ask a friend or colleague, or maybe you ask a boss or mentor.

Whatever the case, I want to give you some good ways to to get advice.

One nice way is to ask for advice before you explain your problem.

For example, you might say, I was wondering if you could give me some advice.

Or if the person already understands the situation, you can just ask, what do you think I should do?

How about a bit of practice on asking for advice?

Listen to each question, then repeat it for yourself.

How would you suggest I respond to their request?

I was wondering if you could give me some advice.

Did you notice that question about if you were me?

That's another great way to ask for advice, by asking them to imagine a situation.

And when you're asking someone to imagine something or when you are imagining, you need to use that word would.

Now, I said that everyone asks for advice, right?

Maybe you are that friend or colleague who is asked to make a suggestion.

By that I mean you're just suggesting possibilities and you don't want someone to think you're telling them what they must do.

The best way to do this is with a question.

You can start with either how about or why don't you?

Remember to repeat the examples after you hear them.

How about having a staff meeting about it?

You could always try calling tech support.

And did you notice the sentence about if I were you?

And you can also use the word could to say, here's one possibility.

Saying you could is a gentle way to give advice.

But sometimes you don't want to be gentle.

Sometimes you have a very strong idea about what someone should do.

And that's when you should use expressions like should, had better, and ought to.

Repeat the examples and Try to notice the expressions that mean should.

You should talk to HR about your problem.

You'd better find someone to edit your work.

You really ought to get approval before spending the money.

You'd be crazy not to ask for a better deal.

That last example was a very strong way of giving advice.

If you say someone's crazy not to do something, you mean they should definitely do it.

Alright, we've practiced some examples on asking for and giving and advice.

But how does this sound in a conversation?

Let's listen to a dialogue between Justin and Brenda.

Justin wants some advice about a job offer.

What do you think I should do about this job offer?

If I were you, I'd probably take the job.

Yeah, it sounds interesting, but the salary is pretty low.

Then you should try to negotiate a better deal.

Justin asked for advice and Brenda made a couple of suggestions.

We'll repeat the dialogue, but this time we're going to beep out the second speaker's words.

You will have to say those parts yourself.

Remember to start by saying that you would take the job.

Then you'll suggest negotiating a better deal.

For this lesson, we've learned some great ways to ask for and give advice.

Tune in next time to learn some more useful English expressions.