Suggest means to put forward an idea, advice or a plan; offer means to say you are willing to give something or do something yourself. Let's take the train is a suggestion, while Can I help you with your bags? is an offer. Both verbs are about proposing, so look at what is being proposed: an idea, or your own help, an object, a job.
suggest or offer — can you pick the right one?
Pick a word and write a sentence — we'll check right away that it fits the meaning and explain any mistakes.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
suggest + -ing; suggest (that) + person + (should) + verb; suggest + noun; offer + to + verb; offer + person + noun
- Maria suggested meeting at the library because the café was too noisy.
- After the trial period, the company offered me a permanent contract.
- When I got lost in Porto, an old man offered to walk me to the station.
What changed
First versionMy colleague suggested me a lift to the station.
RevisionMy colleague offered me a lift to the station.
The colleague is ready to drive you, so they are offering their own help. That is offer: offer somebody a lift. Suggest is about ideas and advice. Besides, suggest cannot be followed directly by a person, so suggested me a lift is wrong in both meaning and structure.
Suggest is not followed by a person and to + verb. Instead of He suggested me to apply, say He suggested applying or He suggested that I should apply. This is a frequent mistake with suggest. Offer, by contrast, happily takes to + verb: She offered to help.
Your turn
My tutor ___ reading one short article a day to build my vocabulary.
Show the answer
suggested — The tutor is giving advice on how to study, not doing something themselves, so the answer is suggested. Also, offered reading is not a possible structure: offer is followed by to + verb or by the thing being given.
Think of a time someone helped you with a problem at work or in your studies. Use offered to say what the person was ready to do themselves and suggested to report their advice.
When my laptop broke before the deadline, a colleague offered to lend me hers and suggested saving my work to the cloud.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.