Had better

[Tdol]

Does anyone really understand this structure? To be honest, it escapes me. ;-)

 

[RonBee]

I wouldn't use had there. Some do, but it doesn't change the meaning.

 

[Tdol]

In BE, the omission of 'had' would be regarded as an error by some. It is certainly colloquial here. ;-)

 

[silversea]

'd better not ;-)

 

[tuangpi]

'Had better' is used to say what is the best thing to do in a situation that's happening now.

You'd better go home now or your girlfriend will leave you for ever. :lol:

 

[silversea]

'Had better' is used to say what is the best thing to do in a situation that's happening now.

You'd better go home now or your girlfriend will leave you for ever. :lol:

hey Tuangpi, U have had such an experience :roll:

 

[tuangpi]

hey Tuangpi, U have had such an experience :roll:

No! But it could happen, couldn't it? :lol:

 

[Isra]

for example: I had better to live now....:-|

 

[Tdol]

Isra, don't use 'to' after had better:
It's better to live for the moment.
You had better live for the moment.
;-)

 

[Isra]

Thank you for your help Tdol:-D

 

[matilda]

had better not

 

[matilda]

sorry, in voting, i made a mistake.
i wanted to vote the second choice . in my opinion, b is correct, and a is incorrect

 

[SunnyDay]

I use "you'd better" and "you'd better not" aaaaaaaalll the time.

 

[JocelynNguyen]

shouldn't be "you had better not DONE it"???? :?:

 

[Tdol]

No
You'd better not do it. (present/future)
You'd better not have done it. (past)

 

[whitemoon]

You hadn't better do it.
This sentence is to check somebody whether he/she can make negative sentence with "had better" or not. I don't know whether this sentence is in present time or past time. Please tell me. Does this sentence show present tense or past tense?

 

[SunnyDay]

(Technically, the "not" in "hadn't" should be after "better", but I'll ignore that for now.) It's present, because you're telling someone not to do something. Past tense (as in, telling someone they shouldn't have done something in the past) would be:
You hadn't better not have done it.

But that's a mouthful and no one would say that anyway; they would shorten it to:
You better not have done it, or You had better not have done it.

 

[galaxy]

COULD you give me a comprehensive explanation about the usage of the modal had better ? please

in the light of my present knowledge , ı say b , had better.

 

[heirloom]

you had better sleep early now.:-D

 

[ALI_E]

thank you everyone