Home / English for STEM: Understanding Engineering Vocabulary / Making Suggestions
Making Suggestions
When you're working in a group, you often have to make suggestions. In this article, learn the language you need to make suggestions appropriately.
In the discussion, the students made a lot of suggestions. They used different phrases to do this. Here are some phrases from the discussion:
How about…
How about we roll up four sheets of newspaper diagonally?
We could…
We could roll them really tightly.
Why don’t…
Why don’t we roll up four sheets of newspaper like Omar said, but horizontally, not diagonally?
What about…
What about rolling up four sheets of newspaper diagonally like Omar said – really tight – but instead of keeping the legs straight, we bend them?
What if…
What if we turn the A-shaped legs upside down?
Let’s…
Let’s just make a box using the rolled-up newspaper.
Form
It’s important to learn how to use these phrases in a sentence. They’re not all used in the same way.
Here’s how we use them:
We could / Let’s
| Phrase | Infinitive |
|---|---|
| We could / Let’s | roll up |
Why don’t
| Phrase | Subject + infinitive |
|---|---|
| Why don’t | we roll up |
What if
| Phrase | Subject + present simple |
|---|---|
| What if | we roll up |
How about / What about
| Phrase | Subject + present simple OR -ing form |
|---|---|
| How about / What about | we roll up OR rolling up |
Notice that a full stop is used at the end of sentences using We could and Let’s:
We could roll them really tightly.
Let’s just make a box using the rolled-up newspaper.
However, a question mark is used with the others:
How about we roll up four sheets of newspaper diagonally?
Why don’t we roll up four sheets of newspaper like Omar said, but horizontally, not diagonally?
What about rolling up four sheets of newspaper diagonally like Omar said – really tight – but instead of keeping the legs straight, we bend them?
What if we turn the A-shaped legs upside down?
Discussion
Use one of these phrases to make your own suggestion about how to build the table.
Post your suggestion in the comments below.
This article is from the online course:
English for STEM: Understanding Engineering Vocabulary
Created by
This article is from the free online
English for STEM: Understanding Engineering Vocabulary
Reach your personal and professional goals
Unlock access to hundreds of expert online courses and degrees from top universities and educators to gain accredited qualifications and professional CV-building certificates.
Join over 18 million learners to launch, switch or build upon your career, all at your own pace, across a wide range of topic areas.
