had better

Surprisingly, there is no entry in the English Grammar Profile for the phrase ‘had better’.  In the English Vocabulary Profile, ‘had better’ with the meaning ‘should’ is listed at A2.

You had better get out of this room and back downstairs right away.

listen


A search for collocates in COCA of:

had better_RRR

1 START 82
2 PREPARED 59

You had better be prepared to push yourself harder than ever.

Chicago Sun-Times

3 WATCH 52
4 READY 47
5 CAREFUL 32
6 LEARN 31
7 DECIDED 30

I decided I had better get out of there.

Saturday Evening Post

8 HURRY 28
9 WAKE 28
10 SKILLS 19
11 LISTENING 16
12 TASTE 15
13 PREPARE 14
14 PRAY 13
15 RETHINK 6