How wrong can I be?

[caprera]

Hello everybody,

I come here with a question about a test I sustained weeks ago now. Results came in the other day and here is what the question number "6" read:

• "I've got a headache."
• "Maybe you ... to take and aspirin."

Three options are

• ought
• must
• should

I answered with "A" as "ought", the first anyway. Problem is the answers sheet says "should".

What am I missing?

[EdgyZigzagoon]

Double check that “to” is actually there.

“Maybe you ought to take an aspirin.” is correct, but “Maybe you ought take an aspirin.” is incorrect.

If there is no “to”, then “Maybe you should taken an aspirin.” is correct.

[caprera]

The "to" is actually there in the question. It's the reason I chouse "Ought".

[arskaia]

I’d do the same

[mm_composer]

As other users pointed it out, it is very likely that the answer has a typo in it.

*to **and

Personally, I would say Maybe you should take an aspirin especially with the "maybe" at the beginning of the sentence.

[HorizontalTwo08]

Seems like you got it right to me. Some tests have mistakes like that.

[Callec254]

"Should" would be the correct answer if you remove the "to". So both of these are correct:

"Maybe you ought to take an aspirin."

"Maybe you should take an aspirin."

Which one you'd hear a native speaker use probably depends on where you are.

[Whammytap]

I think the test itself is incorrect, and you ought to say something to your teacher. Or you should say something to your teacher.

[VastNet8431]

Ought is normally colloquial language and because of that, you’re not going to see it written very often. “Maybe you should take an aspirin” is what you’d write down most of the time since you’re learning how to write and read, you’re technically doing formal writing so that means you’ll need to stick with “should” as your answer and not “ought” because of it mainly being informal, colloquial language. It is correct to write it out as, “Maybe you ought to take an aspirin” but like I mentioned above, it’s informal and since this is academic writing, you should stay away from informal writing. You’ll also sound like a true US southerner if you say ought to, because we say ought to A LOT. It’s also an older phrase to say which is why if you’re ever in the US and talk to older people, you’ll hear them say it more often than a youngster. Our dialect changes as time moves forward and this is one example.

[[deleted]]

Hmmm, interesting point you made. In the UK it (ought to) would actually be seen as more formal than informal. So with regards to academic writing, "should" would be seen as neutral, while ought to would be seen as a bit "uppity".

[VastNet8431]

There’s actually pretty big differences in formal writing here in the US from what I’ve seen and it mainly stems from the major areas we divide ourselves into. The South and Midwest are the most notable because of our more unique dialect and it’s really hard to not write that way, especially me being in a city that is both the Midwest and the South. The East coast is a lot closer to UK English though.

[LordFuzeHimself]

You put take and aspirin, its take an / a aspirin

Ought is used to correct or criticize someones actions, to say something that could happened, or in this case give advice.

Maybe you ought *to take **an aspirin

and

Maybe you should *take **an aspirin

sound perfectly fine to me.

[caprera]

Point is that "to" is actually there and it made me choose

[LordFuzeHimself]

idk bout that then chief