～たほうがいい
had better / better not
～たほうがいい is the standard way to give advice in Japanese. ほう literally means “side” or “direction”, so the pattern says “the side of doing X is good” — in natural English, “you'd better do X” or “you should do X”.
It is softer than a command but stronger than a casual suggestion: it hints that something bad may happen if the advice is ignored. Unlike ～てはいけない, which forbids an action outright, ～たほうがいい only recommends.
1. Advising someone to do something
Attach ほうがいい to the past (た) form of the verb. Even though the form looks past, the advice is about now or the future.
早く寝たほうがいい。
“You'd better go to bed early.”
- 早く（はやく）= early
- 寝た（ねた）= slept (past form of 寝る, to sleep)
- ほうがいい = it would be better to
2. Advising someone not to do something
For negative advice, use the plain ない form, not the past. This asymmetry (positive た, negative ない) is a detail worth memorizing.
夜遅くコーヒーを飲まないほうがいい。
“You'd better not drink coffee late at night.”
- 夜遅く（よるおそく）= late at night
- コーヒー = coffee
- を = object marker
- 飲まない（のまない）= not drink (negative of 飲む, to drink)
- ほうがいい = it would be better
How to form it
Verb た-form + ほうがいい (do it) / Verb ない-form + ほうがいい (don't do it)
- 寝る（ねる）= to sleep → 寝たほうがいい（ねたほうがいい）= you'd better sleep
- 行く（いく）= to go → 行ったほうがいい（いったほうがいい）= you'd better go
- 飲む（のむ）= to drink → 飲まないほうがいい（のまないほうがいい）= you'd better not drink
Key idea
～たほうがいい compares two paths and says one “side” is better. Remember the split: た-form to recommend doing something, ない-form to recommend against it.
Other N4 grammar
Updated .