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I've written this sentence:

Please make recommendations on how to improve language skills.

Is it a valid/good language construct? I'm confused about which preposition to use. I've found examples with 'on', 'about', 'to' and 'for'.

Which preposition should I use? Is there a better way to phrase it?

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  • Can you clarify why you think it might not be valid? Jul 10, 2015 at 18:54
  • I was not sure about which is correct: 'on', 'about', 'to' or 'for' as I can find examples of every of these, but i'm not sure when to use which. Jul 10, 2015 at 18:59
  • 'On' and 'for' are both good. I might use one or the other depending on random chance as much as anything else. 'About' can work as well, but doesn't flow quite as well.
    – DCShannon
    Jul 11, 2015 at 2:13

1 Answer 1

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"Make recommendations on how to" in that sentence is perfectly fine.

Another way you could phrase it would be

Please make some recommendations on how to ...

But they mean the same thing.

The only thing I think you might want to change, depending on what you really want to say, would be later in the phrase. If you're asking about your language skills in particular, you really should specify that:

Please make recommendations on how to improve my language skills.

Or "our language skills", "her language skills", etc. In this case it would be considered normal to say whose language skills you're asking about. If you don't say whose, that will probably be heard as intentional: that you aren't asking about a specific person's language skills, but about any person's language skills. For example, when a teacher is asking, but isn't thinking about any students in particular.

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    +1, If we're going to suggest better phrasings, I would go with "Please make some recommendations on/for/about improving my language skills" or "Please recommend how to improve my language skills".
    – DCShannon
    Jul 11, 2015 at 2:02
  • @DCShannon yes, both of those sound more natural to me, too.
    – Dan Getz
    Jul 11, 2015 at 2:09

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