〜たらどうですか
Why don't you try…? (suggestion)machine translation
FormationVerb た-form + ら + どうですか
To make a gentle suggestion — "why don't you try…?" — conjugate the verb into the た-form and add らどうですか: 休んだらどうですか (why don't you take a rest?). Since it's only a suggestion, the listener is completely free to decline — it sounds much softer than direct advice.
Levels of this pattern: casually, it shortens to 〜たらどう？ or just 〜たら？; more politely and formally, say 〜たらいかがですか. Compared with 〜ほうがいい, which you've already learned, this pattern is much lighter — ほうがいい is "you should do it", while たらどうですか is just "give it a try".
A note on nuance: if you repeat this suggestion many times to the same person, it starts to sound like a reproach — "I told you so, but you didn't do it." Suggesting once and letting the listener decide is most natural.
Examples
疲れているなら、少し休んだらどうですか。
If you're tired, why don't you rest a little?
分からない言葉は先生に聞いたらどうですか。
Why don't you ask the teacher about the words you don't understand?
頭が痛いなら、薬を飲んだらどうですか。
If you have a headache, why don't you take some medicine?