Giving advice with 〜た＋方がいい
Grammar: Necessity » 〜た＋方がいい
When attached to the た form of a verb, 方がいい means that something else would be better (to do). It is similar in meaning to the English “had better do”.
Alternate Explanations
The た form of a verb, followed by the phrase 方がいい, is used to give advice. It corresponds to the English ‘had better do’. The sentence-final particles ね and よ are frequently used when giving advice, either to soften a suggestion (ね) or to give force to it (よ).
Kamiya, Taeko. “Commands, Requests, Suggestions, Approval, Disapproval, Prohibition, and Obligation.” Japanese Sentence Patterns for Effective Communication, Kodansha, 2005, p. 170
This pattern shows how to give advice, make a suggestion. This is done with the phrase 方がいい preceded by a verb in the plain past tense. 方がいい literally means ‘alternative is good’. The alternative being suggested is obviously the one expressed by this phrase, but the other alternative often remains unspoken. The unspoken alternative is often simply taking no action at all. The subject of this pattern is 方 (marked by が), and the topic is the person to whom the advice is being directed (marked by は); since this person is often ‘you’ or ‘I’, it is frequently omitted as being understood form context.
Chino, Naoko. “Basic Pattern 40.” A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Sentence Patterns, Kodansha, 2000, p. 233
Examples
Better to do light stretches before swimming with 〜た＋方がいい
Syaro suggests everyone had better do light stretching before they go swimming.
- シャロ:
- 「泳ぐなら念のため軽くストレッチした方がいいと思うの」
Better to give up fortune telling with 〜た＋方がいい
After Cocoa did fortune telling for her friends, all their fortunes happened to her in a bad way. Rize suggests Cocoa had better stop fortune-telling, for her own sake.
- リゼ:
- 「今後占いやめた方がいいぞ自分のために」
Better to re-learn how to swim with 〜た＋方がいい
As Cocoa mislabels her swimming style as the (front) crawl, Syaro suggests she had better re-learn how to swim.
- シャロ:
- 「泳ぎ方を覚え直した方がいいわね」
