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Many people say "you best should go to sleep" "you best should borrow a book from the library"

Is it strictly correct English? what is the technical description for such a figure of speech?

Is it the same as "you best ought to borrow a book"?

herisson
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bandybabboon
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    What do you mean with "many people", where? I have never heard that being said by any native or proficient speaker, to be honest. A similar expression, that is idiomatic, would be you'd better (go to bed, do something, etc). – oerkelens Feb 12 '15 at 17:34
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    Speakers of Appalachian English might disagree (I think they also say things like You might should do that), but I have to say that for me You best ought to borrow a book doesn't sound at all good. Where do you get your "many people say X" ideas from? – FumbleFingers Feb 12 '15 at 17:36
  • I've lived in Oxford academic circles and am infused with antiquated parlance, akin to how they speak in Jane Austin books, so much so that some of it seems normal to me... I say many people because i checked on google "you best should" and there are many results, althugh it's difficult to see how many because "try you best. Should you find..." is more frequent. I think that in some regions of the UK it is said a lot more than in others. i think it's posh speak essentially and rural oldschool speak. – bandybabboon Feb 12 '15 at 17:44
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    @ufomorace: I seriously doubt any of Austin's characters (and certainly not her "narrative voice") would use this construction. There's only a single instance of you best should go in Google Books, and it's from a modern American author. But the more natural you'd best go gets an estimated 74,000 hits. I think your usage is US "rustic" dialect, not at all "posh". – FumbleFingers Feb 12 '15 at 17:50
  • I think i probably say it because i heard it from my father who is a quaint tutor at oxford, i dont think it's USA particularly. Sometime it does sound natural, "if you get home prior to 3, you should best try to feed the guineapigs" is just an inversion of the same expression, they are equivalent. I know what you mean though, there is something weird about jane austin or dickens using that, not in their own words. I think that it would appear in dialogues. – bandybabboon Feb 12 '15 at 18:10
  • I googled up two instances of "you'd best should". – Greg Lee Feb 12 '15 at 18:28
  • I don't think it's technically incorrect, and it's an idiom that is used (with some variations) by a large number of people. (I might even use it occasionally, when wishing to reflect a certain "mood".) Not worth getting your panties in a knot about, either way. – Hot Licks Feb 12 '15 at 18:44
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    Yes, @ufomorace, it's definitely USA rural-speak, and I mean deep rural-speak. I'm traumatized to hear it's spoken at Oxford. –  Feb 12 '15 at 19:09
  • It's a fairly natural inversion of two words in an otherwise fairly common phrase. for example, "you had best" is almost the same, and it's in cambridge university press: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/had-best and i just looked up "you best should try" and there were 6 results for only try, and there are many other verbs, ... Greg Lee you'd best is even more weird! I might be wrong that it's spoken in Oxford... Eva, you cannot say AT new york... so i dont know if that strangthens your opinion of english terms.. groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/IiZ1P82Fw5s – bandybabboon Feb 12 '15 at 19:35
  • At new york or In new york? https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/IiZ1P82Fw5s – bandybabboon Feb 12 '15 at 19:41
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    @FumbleFingers I understand you to be saying that You had best tell somebody is ok. Why not? It is after all only a variant of you had better tell somebody. But that is a long way from you best should tell somebody which is neither grammatical, nor idiomatic in any UK dialect of which I am aware. – WS2 Feb 12 '15 at 20:25
  • @WS2: All I'm saying is You [had] best/better do that is "normal" English, as is You ought to/should do it. But OP's "doubling-up" version doesn't sound remotely "posh British" to me - it seems more akin to You might could do that, which everyone here agrees is a non-standard US dialectal form. I've no idea whether OP's constructions do occur in Appalachian English, but without any evidence to suggest it's common anywhere, I'm closevoting for lack of supporting research. – FumbleFingers Feb 12 '15 at 21:02
  • @FumbleFingers et al, I've heard this colloquially in both NE USA and SE USA, so it's not strictly Appalachian, but definitely a fairly common, very informal, construction here. – JeffSahol Feb 12 '15 at 21:44
  • Confirming: rural NE USA. Probably a corruption of the "posh" British You'd best X. – ScotM Feb 12 '15 at 23:07
  • If it is a common informal construction, who is to say that it is a gramatically incorrect common informal constrction. perhaps it is a gramatically correct use of the english language that is mroe of a regional variation? – bandybabboon Feb 13 '15 at 07:48

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I am a native UK English speaker, I cannot recall have previously seen your formulation

you best should

I do use

you had best be

and variations

Ah well, it's late, I had best be going

and abbreviate to

I'd best be going

I would say

Kid's it's late, you should be getting ready for bed

But "best should" I can only think of being used in a completely different sense:

Those who know you best should advise you ...

djna
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  • Affable Geek's answer sais that "you'd best be" and "you'd better be" are gramatically incorrect, for the reasons he explains in his answer. – bandybabboon Feb 13 '15 at 07:44
  • @ufomorace I don't see an answer from Affable Geek. Unequivocally we use this phrase in common speech. As to whether it's truly correct I can't see the critique, but I do see examples such as this: http://speakspeak.com/resources/english-grammar-rules/various-grammar-rules/apostrophe-d-had-or-would and this question: http://english.stackexchange.com/users/12586/affable-geek?tab=answers&sort=votes – djna Feb 13 '15 at 14:40
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    Affable geek posted a reply that was upvoted, implying that it was gramatically incorrect, same as "could might do something" and "you'd better be running along now" which he told me was not gramatically correct. i wasn't convinced by his explanation and actually his answer has vanished. – bandybabboon Feb 13 '15 at 17:08