- You had better not tell Linda about her husband’s cheating on her – she’ll go crazy! (你最好別把她先生出軌的事情告訴琳達 - 她會抓狂的!) (正)
- You‘d better not tell Linda about her husband’s cheating on her – she’ll go crazy! (正)
- You had not better tell Linda about her husband’s cheating on her – she’ll go crazy! (誤)
解說:Had better 意為「最好」、「應該」,後接原形動詞,係針對特定情況所提出的強烈勸告或建議,帶有警告或威脅會有不良後果的意味。在口語和非正式寫作中,我們亦可使用 had best 來使語氣不會顯得那麼強烈和直接。Had better 和 had best 中的 had 經常縮略為 ‘d。
Had better 的否定形式是將否定副詞 not 放在 had better 的後面,不是放在 had 的後面。然而,在 had better 的否定疑問句中,not 須與 had 結合成 hadn’t,再移到句首,即「Hadn’t + 主詞 + better …?」。由於 had better 的否定疑問句的語氣比較委婉,因此比肯定句來得常用。例如:
- Hadn’t you better ask me first? (你是不是該先問問我呢?)