Course: How to... Speak English / Unit 1 / Session 12 / Activity 1

Jackie Hello, I'm Jackie Dalton. In this programme, we're going to look at the language we use when we make suggestions. We'll do this by listening to clips from a discussion in the BBC Learning English offices.

EXAMPLEAnd how about food? What kind of food are we going to have?

A member of BBC Learning English is leaving the team to go and work somewhere else and her colleagues are planning a party for her. We'll hear people making suggestions about what the party could involve.

In English, suggestions are very often expressed in the form of questions. Listen to this discussion. What language structure is used to make suggestions here?

EXAMPLE

Voice 1Well, it's for Jackie's leaving party because she's going to work in another department, so we need to have a really good party so we can send her off really well. So, what shall we do?

Voice 2Well, why don't we have a surprise party?

Voice 3That's a good idea.

Voice 2Why don't we hire the ground floor of a bar, get some food in and we could get a band in?

Those suggestions were structured as questions. 'Why don't' followed by the subject - in this case, 'we' - and then the infinitive verb form without 'to'. Listen to some more examples of this structure.