Subjunctive verbs after 'suggest'

[Enlearnercn]

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #90 "Using Make and Do (1)", question 9

The teacher suggested they ......... another exercise to understand the problem better.

(a) make
(b) do
(c) made
(d) did

English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level

ESL/EFL Test #90 "Using Make and Do (1)", answer 9

The teacher suggested they do another exercise to understand the problem better.

Correct answer: (b) do

Your answer was: correct
_________________________

Dear Sir,

Why not DID here?

Thanks in advance

Enlearnercn

[Conchita]

In this sentence:

The teacher suggested they do another exercise to understand the problem better.

do is a subjunctive. The sentence could also read:

The teacher suggested that they should do another exercise to understand the problem better.

Sometimes, as is the case in this example, the should is omitted before certain verbs. Here the infinitive do is left alone and becomes a subjunctive.