Had best

[Andrew Patterson]

A google search of "had better" yields 2,710,000 results whereas "had best yields 189,000 results. Some of the results were headlines such as, "Team had better year this year than last," or "Team had best ever moment," however most used these phrases in their idiomatic/modal role although there appeared to be more non idiomatic/modal uses for "had best" than for "had better. It is the idiomatic/modal use of "had best" and its relationship to the idiomatic/modal use of "had better" that I am interested in.

A search of Answers.com revealed that "had best" has been with us since the mid 1400's yet it seems to be the poor cousin of "had better" and isn't used nearly as much. Answers.com defined it as "act in ones own or everybody's best interest." "Will do well is given as a synonym (I would have thought "would do well" is nearer, though.) "Had better" is given as a synonym of "should"/"ought to" (personally, I think "had better" is stronger than that and lies somewhere in meaning between "should"/"ought to" and "must"/"have to".

"Had best" seems a little anomolous in one way because "best" is the superlative form whereas "better" is only the comparative yet "had better" seems stronger. "Had good" as an idiom/modal does not seem to exist.

"Had best" also seems a little colloqual to me (perhaps thats why it seems less forceful.) That said, a google search of EFL "had best" produced some quite formal looking documents using "had best" in its idiomatic/modal sense.

A person's dialect seems to also determine use of "had best" - it seems far more common in London/Estuary English than in other dialects.

I wonder if you could think about the relationship odf these two phrases. Would you classify "had better" as the proximal form and "had best" as the remote for instance?

Well, I've got other things to do now so I'd best be going.

[lolwhites]

This came up in another thread a while ago:

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... sc&start=0

[Andrew Patterson]

Yes, thank you for locating that. I remembered it but didn't remember its location. I just think there's more to explore here.

I notice that my new post contradicts what I said in the original post.

I thought about diong a test with conditionals to see if one is proximal and the other remote but that doesn't seem to work (or at least, I can't figure out how.) "Had better" just sounds somehow more coersive. Whether that makes it proximal is another matter.

Imagine for instance kidnappers saying,
1. "You had better have the right amount with you," or alternatively;
2. "You had best have the right amount with you."

Mmm, I can't imagine the second somehow.