Functional English: Asking for Advice and Giving Advice or Recommendations

If I were in your place...

Here are useful expressions for the language function of giving advice and recommendations to other people.

Elementary

1. (I think/I really think) you need to/must/should ...
2. How about ...?
3. It is usually a good idea to ...
4. My suggestion/advice is (to) ...
5. Why don't you ...?
6. You could (try) ...
7. You probably/definitely/really should ...

Pre-intermediate

1. Have you tried ...?
2. I (would) (strongly) suggest/advise that ...
3. If I was/were you, I'd ...
4. In my experience, ... works really well.
5. It's generally best/a good idea to...
6. One idea is to ...
7. One thing you could/should/have to do is ...
8. The best/most important thing (to do) is to ...

Intermediate

1. ... might work.
2. ... would probably work.
3. ... (always) works for me.
4. If I was/were in your place, I'd ...
5. If that happened to me/In that case/If I had that problem, I'd ...
6. My (main/personal) recommendation is/would be ...
7. You'd better ...
8. In this (kind of) situation, I (would) always recommend/advise ...

Upper Intermediate

1. (If I was/were) in that (that kind of) situation, I'd ...
2. Have you thought about ...?
3. If it was/were me, I'd ...
4. Make sure you (don't) ...
5. The sooner you ... the better.
6. Whatever you do, ...
7. Your only option is to ...
8. You have no choice but to ...

Advanced

1. ... is worth a try.
2. A (self-help) book I read recommends ...
3. A piece of advice from ... that I'd like to pass on is to ...
4. A wise man once said ...
5. As the proverb says, ...
6. I can't recommend ... strongly enough.
7. You should ..., no doubt about it.
8. It might be an old wives' tale, but ...