Some confliction...

[Jericho Desu]

I always thought that when you wait to use 方がいい with a verb say 食べる you need to put the verb in its past form first so it would end up being 食べた方がいい (it would be better if you ate it). But in this website it shows "Kanojo ni denwa suru hou ga ii", yet even in Tae Kim's website it says you need to make it past except when the verb is in its negative.

Can someone clear this mess up for me?

Thanks!

 

[undrentide]

I always thought that when you wait to use 方がいい with a verb say 食べる you need to put the verb in its past form first so it would end up being 食べた方がいい (it would be better if you ate it). But in this website it shows "Kanojo ni denwa suru hou ga ii", yet even in Tae Kim's website it says you need to make it past except when the verb is in its negative.

Can someone clear this mess up for me?

Tae Kim is correct.
There are two ～方がいい:
(1) comparison (A is better than B)
(2) recommendation/suggestion (you'd better ~)

In case of (1), dictionary form is used.
（メールを送るより）電話をする方がいい。

In case of (2), you should use the past form.
（心配なら）電話をした方がいい。

 

[Jericho Desu]

Really? So then would（メールを送るより）電話をした方がいい mean basically the same thing but you are offering more of a suggestion that phoning would be better than emailing and that
（メールを送るより）電話をする方がいい is just more one is better than the other?

 

[Elizabeth]

I always thought that when you wait to use 方がいい with a verb say 食べる you need to put the verb in its past form first so it would end up being 食べた方がいい (it would be better if you ate it). But in this website it shows "Kanojo ni denwa suru hou ga ii", yet even in Tae Kim's website it says you need to make it past except when the verb is in its negative.

Can someone clear this mess up for me?

Thanks!

Think of 電話するほうがいい as the equivalent for 電話のほうがいい in the same way 電話がいい becomes 電話するのがいい to treat する as a verb （電話するがいい being clearly ungrammatical for "calling is good"）. It's ほう、の inserted as placemarkers/nominalizers etc. for turning verbs into nouns.

 

[Jericho Desu]

Hmm...I think I understand, thanks alot you two!