Posted by Nightedge · July 5, 2015 · 5 replies
Is it correct to say
-I suggest that our sales representative shall visit you this Friday.
Usually the verb in the that-clause following suggest/demand/request would be a bare-infinitive or one following should; but when can we use shall, which is found in some older works by famous writers?
No. The most usual version would be :
I suggest that our representative visits you....
The use of the infinitive (I suggest that our representative visit you...) would be very formal - I'm not sure why you say it is the "usual" form: have you checked with a concordancer? I can find very few examples where the infinitive is used rather than the simple present (obviously you can only tell the difference with a third person subject, as here).
If the suggestion was being reported so that second form verbs were being used then should might be used :
I suggested that our representative should visit them...
but I can think of no case where first form shall would be used after the first form suggest - certainly not in contemporary English, and it would sound odd to me in older versions too. I may be wrong there though. What are your examples and what period do they come from? If you can find some then there's the answer to your question : you can use shall after suggest if you're writing in the style of that century.
Excellent answer. Thank you.
Is my sentence correct?
-Just now Prof. Einstein suggested that we'd better postpone the lecture next Monday to a week later so that you can have more time to prepare for the mid-term exam and relax after that.
Yes, it's fine.
Good answer. Thank you.
