had best / had better

[Elena_26]

Помогите, пожалуйста, с информацией. Какая разница между "had better" и "had best"?
Конкретного контекста нет. имеются в виду модальные выражения:
You'd better leave at once / You'd best help the eledrely lady. etc

Заранее спасибо!

[Milanya]

Had better is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning “ought to, must.” It resembles an auxiliary verb in that its form never changes to show person or tense and that it can’t follow another verb in a phrase (that is, you can’t say He will had better leave, for example). 1
When speaking, people have a tendency to leave out had: You better clean up your room! But in writing, you had better keep had, either in full or as a contraction: You had better not do that or You’d better not do that.

http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/029.html

20. had better, would be wiser or more well-advised to; ought to: We had better stay indoors today. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/had better)

18. had best, would be wisest or most reasonable to; ought to: You had best phone your mother to tell her where you are going. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/had best)

It looks like there is no difference. I hear "had better " more often, though.

[Elena_26]

Большое спасибо!!!