Question:
I am a Korean teacher of English in Korea.
One of my fellow teachers said that it could be possible to use 'would
better' instead of 'would rather'. But I argued that 'would better' was not
standard English expression, therefore, Learners or teachers of English as a
foreign or second language use 'would rather' rather than 'would better'.
Besides, I could not find 'would better' in the OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE, COBUILD
ADVANCED LEARNER'S DICTIONARIES, and LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY
ENGLISH, I only find three examples sentences in The Collins WordbanksOnline
English corpus. What do you think?
Answer:
It's true that "you would better" is very unusual, though possible in
spoken English in the sense "it is advisable for you to..." .
But I believe your colleague is interpreting "you'd better" as "you
would better" rather than "you had better" = "I strongly advise you to
...". The latter is the normal interpretation.
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