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Could you please suggest me which word to use.

Could you please suggest to me which word to use.

I am not sure which of the above two forms is grammatical. I am confused because for tell verb we use 'tell me', and for explain 'explain to me'.

Can anyone please explain it to me?

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Max
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    I am not sure which of the above two forms is grammatical? isn't a question, so it doesn't take a "?" I'll let @Carlo_R. go back and reedit the question. –  Mar 09 '13 at 15:50
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    @user264 Declarative questions are far more acceptable nowadays. 'You're going shopping tomorrow?' They're marked by rising terminal intonation in conversation, and need a question mark to identify them in writing. I'd say that 'I'm not sure which of the above two forms is grammatical?' is acceptable in a non-formal register. – Edwin Ashworth Dec 11 '15 at 08:19

3 Answers3

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"Suggest" is not normally followed by an indirect object without a preposition. So you should say:

Could you please suggest to me which ...

FumbleFingers
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    I don't know why someone downvoted this. It's perfectly correct. Though it's probably true to say OP's usage of the verb suggest isn't exactly "kosher" in the first place for many native speakers, as implied by @Tlazolteotl's answer. – FumbleFingers Mar 09 '13 at 15:23
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    I'd suggest that it's downvoted because many people believe you shouldn't put prepositional phrases (or adverbs, for that matter) between verbs and their direct objects (indirect objects are fine). I'd agree with this when the direct object is short. But for long direct objects, like the OP's, I would put "to me" first. – Peter Shor Mar 09 '13 at 16:20
  • @Peter, quite so. In fact it sounds more natural to say "Could you please suggest a restaurant to me" rather than "Could you suggest to me a restaurant". But in the OP's case you have to place "to me" just after "suggest" :) –  Mar 09 '13 at 16:25
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    I believe there are some people who believe that "suggest to me ..." is ungrammatical, even if the direct object is very long. A similar question came up on EL&U, although I'm unable to find it. This also seems to be a new development in English. If you search in Google books for "explain to me this mystery", almost all the hits are from before 1900, while "explain this mystery to me" has many recent hits, as well as some older ones. – Peter Shor Mar 09 '13 at 16:38
  • @FumbleFingers Are you saying that the expression in OP is odd to native speakers? – Max Mar 09 '13 at 17:15
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    @Thor: I think most native speakers (particularly, Americans) would classify your #1 as "ungrammatical" for the same reason they don't like I'll open you the door. But as Peter Shor indicates above, by no means everyone would be 100% happy with such usage of "suggest", even once the secondary "indirect object" (i.e. - me) has been given an acceptable preposition. – FumbleFingers Mar 09 '13 at 17:32
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    I believe the second expression of the OP would have sounded fine to native speakers in 1850, but sounds odd to many native speakers (but not all) now. – Peter Shor Mar 10 '13 at 18:27
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The most common way suggest is used, as far as I've heard, is how you used explain in your last sentence: "Could you suggest something to me?"

Tlazolteotl
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When suggest is followed by a pronoun, a preposition is not used. No 'to' between suggest and me. Suggest is one of those verbs that cannot be followed by object + infinitive. Instead, we use that-clauses and –ing forms.

Father suggested consulting a financial advisor. OR Father suggested that I should consult a financial advisor. (NOT Father suggested me to consult a financial advisor.) (NOT Father suggested to consult a financial advisor.) (https://www.englishgrammar.org/suggest/)

Abhijeet Pratap
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