to had best
86
6.0
- phrasal verb
- Archaic
:
más vale (que)
- You had best finish your homework before going out with friends.
- had best get
My fear of cancer, heart failure, whatever had better not be bigger than my fear, my awe of God.
- My fear of cancer, heart failure, whatever had better not be bigger than my fear, my awe of God.
- And you guys had better make sure that this time, for once, I'm wrong.
Examples
-
This had better be important, or one of us is in trouble.
-
All the same, he thought he had better go with her.
Fiction book (1993) -
- This had better be good, Henry.
-
Perhaps I had better have another go at it.
-
You had better be the president.
-
"We had better go in the back way."
-
I tell myself I had better have something for her to look at.
Fiction book (1993) -
Since you don't appear to know your way, you had better follow me.
Fiction book (1992) -
You had better go.
-
"Deana Louise, you had better say this minute what foolishness you told to that man."
Fiction book (1990)
Antonyms
How Advisable
Surface Forms
Morphology
had + best
The adverb 'best' carries the sense of advisability so a learner who knows 'best' could plausibly infer that the phrase recommends an action, but the auxiliary 'had' here is grammaticalized as a modal (not literal past possession) and the tense/form does not transparently map onto its meaning. Because meaning partly follows from the constituents yet relies on an idiomatic grammatical pattern that may confuse B1 learners, this construction is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Had best comes from the idea of picking the 'best' choice; imagine someone saying you had the best chance if you do something now. So, had best means 'it is wise or advisable to do something'.