Das kommt immer drauf an...

No. For example: "I recommend the Erdinger wheat beer."

I recommend you give some specific examples; that will help.
But I wouldn't recommend the use of "to recommend to do sth" -- even if native speakers are guilty of it

I agree, recommend does not need to be followed by a gerund. Right now I can think of three ways to use recommend:

Doctors recommend drinking a glass of red wine every day.

May I recommend the steak?

I recommend that you go no further with these plans.


That basically sums up recommend, as far as I know. The word "recommend" is followed in the first two cases by a noun or gerund (which is suppose is also a noun) and in the third by a subordinate clause beginning with "that." As Ghol said, don't say "recommend to do sth.," but honestly, I've never heard anyone say that. I often find that AE is more different from BE than I think.

Ghol, you are too subtle for me.

I wouldn't recommend the use of....

which is another way of recommending a noun, was left out.

Was aber, wenn das Objekt dabei steht?

"The tourist guide recommended them going to the harbour for dining." ??
"The tourist guide recommended them to go to the harbour for dining." ??

(Ich weiß, "The tourist guide recommended their going to the harbour for dining." wäre die ganz korrekte Variante, aber sagt das jemand im wahren Leben?)

@Sophil

None of the sentences you suggest sounds natural to me.

For one thing, I don't think that the object can directly follow recommend. As far as I can think, it always needs a "to" if you are going to name the person to whom a recommendation is being made.

"I recommended to him that he make wiser investments."

Please note that while I don't particularly care for the style of that sentence, "I recommended him that he make wiser investments" is definitely wrong.

Working with your example:

The guidebook recommended that they go to the harbor for lunch/dinner/their meal.

The guidebook recommended going to the harbor for dinner.

The guidebook recommended the harbor for dinner.


All sound OK to me, and I've listed them in order of my own preference.

This may be just my preference, but I wouldn't even say "to dine." As indicated above, I would just name the meal they were eating.

Müssen meine Einträge immer zwei Teile haben? Es sieht so aus.

About your sentences:

You are correct about the third one, there is nothing wrong with it grammatically, and you are further correct in thinking that no one would say that sentence.

However, the first two are, I believe, both grammatically incorrect AND possessing of the additional problem that no one would ever say them.

In another development, I'm coming around on the issue of omitting the "that."

"The book recommended they go to the harbor."

Is OK.

ZatA,

Nehmen wir dein Doktor-Beispiel:
Du sagst
"Doctors recommend to their heart patients drinking a glass of red wine every day."
und
"Doctors recommend to their heart patients to drink a glass of red wine every day."
klängen unnatürlich und empfiehlst
"Doctors recommend that their heart patients drink a glass of red wine every day."

Soweit ok. Aber die Aussage ist eine andere. In den ersten beiden empfehlen sie es ihnen direkt, beim dritten geben sie ihre Empfehlung an andere. Möglicherweise wissen die patient nichts von der Empfehlung.

Wäre es dann nicht eher
"Doctors recommend to their heart patients that they drink a glass of red wine every day." ??



Und wie ist es mit "advise"? hier kommt das Objekt doch ohne "to", oder?

"Doctors advise their heart patients drinking a glass of red wine every day." ??
"Doctors advise their heart patients to drink a glass of red wine every day." ??

Klingt das auch unnatürlich?

I maintain that the first examples sentences about the doctors are definitely wrong. I stand by the third. The problem you mention could be avoided by saying:

"Doctors recommend to their heart patients that they drink a glass of red wine every day."

Which you do in fact say. The result is a fine, but in my opinion rather long-winded, sentence.

I think it's a bit silly to imagine that I could recommend something to someone about someone else or to no one in particular. A recommendation is a direct address, the idea that someone is being addressed is inseparable from the use of the verb. "I recommend to you that your brother clean his room," is a very strange, perhaps wrong, formulation. The verb recommend, by its nature, suggests that there is someone to whom the recommendation is being made. That sentence "I recommend to you..." I would say either doesn't make sense or is a slightly ironic (and again, probably wrong) way of saying "You need to get your brother to clean his room, or there will be problems for you."

That being said, I see what you are saying about the indirect recommendation. It sounds as if a newspaper called up the doctor and got him to say "I recommend that my patients drink a glass of wine a day." It does have more of a "general" feel to it.

The long-windedness problem can be avoided by using "advise," as you suggest. Your first sentence using advise is, if not wrong, strange-sounding. The second is correct and sounds natural.

"I advised him to reconsider." is stylistically much better than
"I recommended to him that he reconsider"

Vielen Dank, ZatA!

Excuse me for butting in, but I disagree.
To recommend *to somebody* that they do something sounds very strange.

I can imagine hearing "My recommendation to you is..." but even in such a case, "My advice" would be more likely, wouldn't it?

I agree entirely with ZatA. I think he/she also pointed out that it is usually redundant to say "I recommend *to somebody* that they do something..." as the "to" part is normally implied by the word recommend; however, it is okay in the example "Doctors recommend to their patients ..."

Think of: "He recommended this medicine to me."

I think Ghol's point was that a lot of German speakers (and even some native speakers apparently) insist on the formulation "We recommend you to sell your shares" or "we recommend to get a French lawyer to look at this" - both of which are wrong.
They should read:
"We recommend selling your shares"
"We recommend getting a French lawyer to look at this" -
so Pixi is right is suspecting that "recommend" requires the gerund.

@Maria

I agree, I don't like "recommend to [someone]" either, but I don't think it's actually wrong.

"Recommend to you" is particularly egregious, but "recommend to him" while still strange, might be acceptable, in my opinion.

You're right, though. "Recommend to" should be avoided.

Doctors recommend eight glasses of water a day to their patients.

Doctors recommend to their patients that they drink eight glasses of water a day.

Doctors recommend to their patients eight glasses of water a day.


Would you go so far as to say those are actually wrong? I wouldn't, though the middle one definitely sounds quite strange (also, is "they" referring to the doctors? Who knows?). The first is the most likely to be acceptable.

I'm afraid my favorite way to say that one would be:

Doctors recommend drinking 8 glasses of water a day.

Maybe that's why I don't like the "to" - it's superfluous.

Her doctor recommended a special diet.
His doctor recommended taking it easy.
My doctor recommended a special set of exercises.
--I maintain it is clear in each case who should be on a special diet, or take it easy, or do special exercises.
But no, I cannot bring myself to say "recommend to (sb.)" is actually wrong. I suspect it might be, but if it is, it would take more time to find evidence for that fact than I can invest right now.

@Maria: your examples are right, and more natural, or at least less awkward than "Doctors recommend to their patients that they...", but the construction "to recommend (sth) to (sb)" is not actually wrong in itself. This is evidenced by the fact that we can and do use it where the indirect object comes at the end of the sentence:

Where did you get that book? - Oh, a friend recommended it to me. It's very good reading.
However did you discover this marvellous restaurant? - Well, actually, someone recommended it to my mother. And then she recommended it to us. - Well, I'm certainly going to recommend it to all my friends! The cuisine is divine!

(This restaurant example is making me feel hungry...)

I'm going to throw some oil on the fire here: I agree with Sophil, and disagree with ZatA's critique.

Using Mary (nz/A)'s example "A friend recommended this book to me", I would find the following ways of saying the same thing _all_ acceptable:

A friend recommended this book to me.
A friend recommended that I read this book.
A friend recommended me reading this book.

This last one is Sophil's usage, and for me it is normal English and completely OK.

Well, Martin - I would personally only recommend the first and second of your examples - the third sounds unnatural to me - but nevertheless a Google search comes up with 169 hits for the phrase "recommended me reading" - indeed, even from native English websites.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q="recommended+me+reading"&btnG=Search

@Martin

Sorry, gotta agree with myself. "He recommended me reading this book" sort of sounds okay, but I feel it's very limited. When you try:

"I recommended him reading this book" this sentence seems to me more strikingly wrong, and all I did was switch the people.

And how about this change:

The guidebook recommended us eating at the harbor.

Does those sound right to you? I haven't changed anything fundamental. If they don't sound weird to you, I may be wrong; it could be a West coast thing (Does -cal mean California?)

@ZatA - I guess we just disagree then. But to respond to your questions,

Yes, "I recommended him reading this book" is OK to me.

But "The guidebook recommended us eating at the harbor" is not OK, since the guidebook presumably is written for a general audience, not for us in particular. "He recommended us eating at the harbor" _is_ OK though.

And yes, "cal" is California (San Jose, to be specific), but I grew up in New York and still have a pronounced New York accent, so I doubt it is really an eastside/westside thing. It may be that I am just more accepting of informal usage. Do you really think that you heard someone say "my friend recommended me reading this book", you would think twice of it? Well, maybe so, but it really sounds perfectly normal and standard (if not exactly formal) to me.

No. For example: "I recommend the Erdinger wheat beer."

Sorry for the double posting. This has happened a couple other times. Seems to be some strange thing when I hit my "back" button. I'll try to avoid that.