English Modal Verb in the Past Could HaveCouldnt Have
okay thank you’s rolling hi everybody
welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is alicia and in
this week’s live lesson we are going to
talk about
a modal verb in the past this week i’m
going to focus on how to use
could have and the negative form
couldn’t have
we’re going to practice using this to
make statements
and to make questions i’m also going to
talk about
some pronunciation points and also a
couple of common questions people
have with this grammar so i hope that
everyone can find something new
in today’s lesson so as you join please
make sure to send a message
in the chat so that we can say hello to
you also please make sure to like and
share the video so that other people can
find today’s
lesson uh while we wait as always a
couple of quick
announcements i will take away the
lesson title
there is this free banner free banner
this banner at the bottom of the screen
about free
pdf lessons you can get a bunch of
free vocabulary uh sheets to download
these are a few examples i was just
looking at this one this talking online
one i thought this was really helpful
for right now
these are cheat sheets so basically a
quick
reference or a quick guide to a
conversation
topic this one is about talking online
so vocabulary words
and expressions you can use in this case
common english internet vocabulary and
common phrases to use so this
is the one i was just looking at i
thought this one was a nice one for
these days so you can check this out and
many many more i’ll show you some more
later there are a lot
uh you can find this from the link below
the video if you’re watching on
youtube or above the video if you are
watching
on facebook that’s announcement number
one announcement number two is as always
if you have questions about anything
related to english if you have grammar
questions if you want to know the
difference between
some similar vocabulary words if you
have culture related questions whatever
you can send them to me here please send
them to me
for our english q a series called ask
alicia this is a screenshot from the
series
so i will read your question and maybe
choose to answer
it so uh you can find these videos
on the english class 101 youtube channel
uh you can find just search for ask
alicia there
and you’ll find it should be exciting
all right so that is it
for today’s announcements uh i will come
and say hello
in the chat real quick uh youtube i see
everybody there facebook i’m coming to
look for you too great it looks like
everybody’s there youtube i’ll say hi to
you first elvin new conway hello krish
wilbur hi cool vishnu hi wahab hi thank
you very much for coming
and on facebook uh i see lots of you on
hi hey mafia uh ismail hi sophia hi
miguel hello stanley rasheed hi
thanks everybody for joining us this
week as i said
this week we are going to talk about how
to use
a modal verb in the past i’m going to
cover
could have and couldn’t have this week
so everybody is here let’s look now
at today’s lesson flow so again if you
have not seen our live lessons recently
i am broadcasting from home
i’m using smaller white boards these
days let’s take a look at
our lesson flow if i can push the button
correctly
there we go okay let’s take a look at
our lesson flow first
i’m going to talk about could and could
not have to make
statements this is part one next i’m
going to talk about
how to make questions and kind of when
we use these
and last i’m going to do an f a q
faq means frequently asked questions
so i’m going to cover some common
questions people have about this grammar
okay so let’s get into the first part of
today’s lesson then please
i’m going to begin with this part once i
find my marker i lost my marker
okay let’s talk first then about how to
use this grammar
to make statement statements so
uh first let’s quickly review how
we make this grammar what do we do
when we use could in the past for this
for this lesson this is the basic way
we form the grammar could
plus have plus the past participle form
of a verb
so our subject will be over here
somewhere so i could have he
could have she could have and so on to
make it negative
we use not before have
right here so what does this grammar do
why should we use this grammar we use
could have and could not have to express
past possibility past possibility
so that means we want to talk about
something
that happened or that did not happen in
the past
we just want to express it was possible
or impossible so
to imagine this imagine a timeline so
here’s the past
here’s now our lesson and then into the
future
so when we make a positive could have
past participle verb statement
it refers to something
in the past that was possible
that was possible but a key with this
grammar point is
we just want to talk about it so that
means this thing
it didn’t happen it didn’t happen but we
just
want to imagine that it was possible
okay on the other hand when we make a
negative
could not have something
it refers to something that was not
possible in the past so
again the opposite this thing did happen
but we want to imagine a situation
that is different from the past so a lot
of people ask me like can i just
change could and would can i use them in
the same way the answer is no
they communicate very very different
ideas
i made a modal verbs in the past lesson
about
wood so please check that out if you
have questions about how to use wood i
will put a link to it
after the stream in the youtube
description for this video so please
check that out if you want to understand
the differences
so let’s practice uh
some positive and some negative
statements and if you have one please
send it in the chat i will try
to check your answers live and give you
some feedback
so let’s take a look at this sentence if
i
had studied i could have passed the test
if i had studied i could have passed the
test
here we see a very common grammar
pattern
with this could have pattern with this
could have structure
it’s very common to see these kinds of
structures with an if statement so if
something something something usually if
plus this past perfect because
we’re talking about a past situation
yeah
or a past imaginary situation so it’s
very common to see an
if i had something something i could
have
something something so this is a very
common uh
structure you can practice this one so
what is happening in this sentence
first here’s our could have and
past is the past participle form of the
verb
i could have passed the test if i had
studied
so what does this mean it means
i did not study first i did not study
but i want to imagine
if i had if i had studied
i could have passed the test that means
in the past
there was a past possibility
of passing the test but
i did not pass the test why probably
because
i didn’t study so again we want to just
imagine
past possibility okay
let’s look at a negative sentence and
then i’ll come to
the chat to try to check some of your
examples okay
so a negative sentence we could not
have achieved our goals without our
great
team once more we could not
have achieved our goals without our
great team so this is a negative
could not have achieved is the past
participle form of
achieve we could not have achieved our
goals
then what is happening here so we are
expressing
a negative yeah so that means achieved
our goals this is the action
the activity kind of we want to express
that action in the past
there was no possibility for it but
we had a great team so this this
without means if it’s like saying
if we had not had a great team
if we had not had our great team we
would not or we could not have achieved
our goals
so this without is like a short way a
very short
quick way of saying uh had not had or
if we had not had very convenient
this word so here is how we use it for a
negative
so this is a compliment to our team yeah
okay great i will come for your example
sentences now uh
try to make an example sentence too uh
silva says if i had studied with alicia
before i could have had a better english
level all right pretty good
to make the last part i could have
had maybe a better english level we
might say i could have
maybe achieved a higher english level
uh i could have slept but instead i
studied english good
okay good good good oh jantani says if i
had a good education
i could have had a beautiful life so
make sure
when your verb is have and then the next
verb is
have as well could have had
i could have had okay
on facebook barrage says if i hadn’t
gone to the hospital
oh i wouldn’t now that’s a wooden
example sentence good
we’re practicing good today i wouldn’t
have had chronic pain it’s correct
though nice sentence uh
let’s see jose says we could not have
assessed the facility without the audit
checklist
nice perfect and great vocabulary in
that okay
um what happened to your board i’m
teaching from my house
so okay um
deepak on youtube says if i had enough
money
maybe if i had had because again
we are talking about the past yeah if i
had had enough money
i could have purchased a netflix
subscription
for a year for a year great okay nice
examples everybody
let’s look at two more longer examples i
want to show some kind of
natural long examples that use this
grammar
and then we’ll go to part two so another
positive sentence
you could have come hiking with us
if you had arrived in town earlier
you could have come hiking with us if
you had arrived in town earlier
so what’s happening here you could have
come this is our could have structure
the activity was hiking
you could have come hiking with us
here’s our if again so a very common
pattern
if with this if you had arrived in town
earlier earlier this point right here
early year is it common a very common is
rather is where i see a very common
mistake in learners
many learners say if you had arrived in
town
early early the reason this
has to be this must be early year
is because we are expressing earlier
than the time you actually arrived
earlier than the time you actually read
so if i arrived in town at two o’clock
p.m
but uh in order to go hiking
i had to arrive at 12 o’clock
that’s earlier than the time i actually
arrived so we have to use the
comparative form
here if you could have come hiking with
us if you had arrived in town earlier so
this sentence
just makes the if part last
in the sentence you can switch it so if
can come at the beginning
okay one more negative example then we
will go to part
two our manager was in meetings
all morning so she couldn’t have had
time to review
the documents we sent again
our manager was in meetings all morning
so she couldn’t have had time to review
the documents we sent so what is
happening in this sentence
there’s no if right what’s going on so
we’re talking about this past condition
where our manager was in
meeting so in meetings means she was
busy she was
attending meetings all morning
so she couldn’t have had
that means it was impossible
she had time to review the documents we
sent
she couldn’t have had time to review the
documents we sent
and again here i’ve used have
and the next verb is also have but i
have to use
the past participle form of the verb so
have had she couldn’t have had time to
review the documents
we sent okay
what else what are your example
sentences uh i’m looking for your
notifications
uh says if i had learned a new language
i could have spoken with new people
great nice example sentence nice example
sentence
uh okay i think you guys have got it i
think everybody’s doing great with this
grammar nicely done
uh let’s take a quick break and then
we’ll continue to part
two part two ah you can send your
examples
while i do our break real quick if you
missed it earlier if you missed it
earlier in the link below the video if
you’re watching on youtube or above the
video
if you are watching on facebook a link
there is a link
to where you can download free
vocabulary
pdfs for example this one is at the
supermarket
this one says singing i know but this is
about actually
music the topic here is music so key
like
music vocabulary words and phrases like
conversational phrases for music
so these pdfs are to help you
improve like uh key uh points of
conversation
key topics of conversation so these are
just a couple i showed you this one
earlier there’s a bunch you can choose a
bunch
leisure activities so check these out
you can get them um from the link below
the video or above the video at
englishclass101.com
uh and work on your grammar should be
good
okay um we will continue on now
so if you’re just joining today’s lesson
is
about a modal verb could we’re
practicing using
could have and couldn’t have in this
week’s lesson so if you have not already
please make
sure to like and share the video so that
other people
can find today’s lesson alrighty
so let’s move on to part two i’m going
to show you again
today’s lesson boards you can take a
picture if you like
so here we go could and could not
have statements this was part one for
today
now i’m going to talk now i’m going to
talk about
part two part two is going to cover
questions questions so i’m going to talk
about yes no and information
questions let’s go all right some of you
are asking me about the link
for those pdfs i showed if you’re
watching on youtube check
the description not the chat box check
the description
alrighty let’s go to part two questions
how to make questions with could
it’s kind of tricky i think so let’s
practice
okay so could and could not have
questions questions how do we make
questions with this grammar
i have one pattern listed here
but actually there are two question
structures
inside it so we begin this question
pattern
with whq whq that means a wh
question who what when where why
how also so whq
could plus subject
plus have and past participle
verb we can also use a negative here
couldn’t subject have past participle
verb
but an important note
when we use the negative here this
negative
question pattern is usually used to make
confirmation questions what does that
mean a confirmation question
that means when you want to ask someone
is this right
is that right we use this negative
couldn’t pattern that’s usually what we
use it we typically
don’t use this wh question plus the
negative form
we usually use this negative form to
check
something okay let’s continue then
i’m going to introduce a bunch of
different examples
of questions questions yes or no
questions
and information questions the first one
this is one i included because you can
use this question
to get feedback feedback especially
if you make a mistake you can use this
at work
you can use it at school as well the
question is what
could i have done better what
could i have done better so this
question
there’s a lot actually there’s a lot of
information in this question
it’s like saying i understand
my performance was a little low or my
performance
was very low maybe at work or at school
so you ask your co-worker or your boss
or your teammate
what could i have done better so that
means
in the past what choice or what
different action should i have taken
so what could i have done better than i
did in other words
so this is an example of a positive
information question
okay another one this is another very
common one
and this is a confirmation question you
can use
uh in many different situations here i
chose this example
you’re late you’re late couldn’t you
have texted couldn’t you have texted so
to text means to pick up your phone and
send a text message
to say i’m late i’m late i’m going to be
late
so you’re late couldn’t you have texted
this means wasn’t it possible
for you to text me in other words but
this is a very
short and easy way to say it couldn’t
you have texted
again you cannot change could for would
in this example so you cannot use uh
would here
you’re late couldn’t you have texted you
can use that
and you can use a different verb too
you’re late couldn’t you have called
something like that so this is a very
common
negative question here’s another one
that you can use if you are maybe
working
in a team so maybe like doing research
or looking at data
data analysis or something so
this is where could
we have made a mistake
where could we have made a mistake
so again past
and we’re asking hmm
it’s kind of like again we’re looking
for feedback but in a group
like uh did we do something wrong
if so where is it possible it was here
or here
so again this is about this is like a
group kind of feedback or a group
discussion question
where could we have made a mistake i
don’t know
okay uh another one this
is a good pattern for arguments for
arguments
uh let’s see so how could i
have known you got a new
phone number you didn’t tell me how
could i have known you got a new phone
number
so that means how there was no
possibility
for me to know you got a new phone
number
how could i have known how was it
possible
for me to know you didn’t tell me so
you can change this part right here so
how could i have known blah blah blah
how could i have known
uh you moved to a new apartment or how
could i have known
you cancelled uh the reservation so
some kind of uh like key update you can
put a key update here how could i have
known
you got a new phone number so this uh
expresses
kind of a frustrated feeling like i’m
angry i didn’t know some information
but maybe the other person isn’t very
logical like they’re mad
you didn’t call but you didn’t know they
had a new phone number
so this is a good one for arguments how
could i have known that
okay one more question pattern
uh this one who could have taken
my coffee i thought i was the only
person in the office today
who could have taken my coffee so this
is a good one
to use when you are thinking by yourself
you’re thinking by yourself
you’re like what what happened who could
have
taken in this case so you can change
this verb
of course to match what you’re wondering
about
like hmm who could have called me just
now
i don’t know that phone number so you
can change this verb of course
for when you’re wondering about
something
who could have done
that action in this case who could have
taken my coffee
i thought i was the only person in the
office so this is when
your coffee just disappears strangely i
don’t know maybe it’s happened to you
okay so this is how we use could
and could not have to make questions to
make questions
okay uh let’s see
i’m looking for your examples now rascal
says how could i have known that you
were in the usa
very nice okay uh bhavna
who could have eaten my pizza good who
could have
eaten eaten who could have
eaten my pizza so
make sure this eaten is the past
participle
verb form here past participle verb
uh what could i have done to make up for
my mistake very nice
very nice uh other examples
who could have stolen my keys very nice
okay good good examples everybody on
facebook i’m looking for your example
um let’s see
raquel says can we say could plus
present perfect uh
in this grammar no we cannot say that
like could
uh has like he could has
something or other no we cannot use a
present perfect
after this we need to use at half half
so separate grammar points there okay
others uh raquel says what could have
happened
with my cell phone very nice okay
fantastic nice job with questions
everybody great so i hope you found a
useful pattern
here this one again good for feedback
this one good for when you’re frustrated
with someone’s poor communication skills
uh oh other examples are coming in now
fantastic who could have stolen my book
perfect
okay how could i have known she was your
girlfriend oh
douglas very nice example kind of
scandalous
on facebook uh china says who could have
taken my place
very nice example uh asiyasuki
says how could i have known you bought
a house be careful you bought a house
brought
means bring to bring a house maybe not
bring
so how could i have known you bought a
house okay
roger how could i have known about modal
verbs here
by studying maybe yeah good example
sentence
uh who could have picked up my ball pen
who could have picked up my ball pen
stacy uh
zaid says who could have taken my car oh
very nice example sentence very nice
example
okay new on youtube says who could have
sent messages to me i don’t give my
phone number to anyone good
very very close so maybe a good practice
point for many of you make sure you use
the past
participle verb form when you’re making
your questions here
okay let’s continue to the last part of
today’s lesson
if you’re just joining today’s lesson is
about modal verbs in the past we are
focusing i’ll show you the lesson title
if you’re just joining
if you’re just joining today’s lesson
focus is modal verbs in the past i’m
talking about how to use
could have and couldn’t have so
we’re going to go to the final part
of today’s lesson uh real quick i will
show you again
a couple of vocabulary resources to help
you
uh in your studies you can pick one or a
bunch
i showed a few of these earlier this one
uh these are all for free at
englishclass101.com but you can download
these
pdfs to practice a specific vocabulary
or a specific conversation this is
travel i know
but there’s a list of vocabulary uh a
list of phrases on the back
uh basic phrases so these are really
this one is really really good for
beginners i think uh there’s another
good one
for sports and exercise i know this is a
topic that’s important to me
at this point in time so you can take a
look uh
at any of these you can download all of
them there’s a ton
there’s a bunch you can download for
free
business as always important for many of
you i know so check it out from the link
below the video
the description if you are watching on
youtube and check above the chat or
above this video if you are watching
this
on facebook to get these all right so
let’s go to the last part of today’s
lesson uh also if you’re just joining
please make sure to like and share the
video
so other people can find today’s lesson
all right
i’ll show you today’s lesson uh flow
once more you can take a picture if you
like
means frequently asked questions
frequently asked questions ah
all right so let’s go to that let me get
this out of here
all right faq
what are your frequently asked questions
so frequently asked questions things
i notice you ask me about is frequently
asked questions here
first i want to talk about this
use of could have and could not have
i think many uh many people get kind of
confused
about how to use this with been
could have been or could not have been
when we use this
grammar pattern with the verb be
we can make a statement about a
condition
or we can also use it to create a
passive sentence so i want to share a
couple of examples
because the grammar the grammar is the
same as the grammar
we talked about before we make the
sentence in the same way
but we follow the verb
with some different information so we’re
following the verb with
a condition or a status or like a job
so for example if i had studied harder
when i was a kid i could have
been a doctor if i had studied harder
when i was a kid
i could have been a doctor so here could
have been a doctor this is like a
condition we can think of it like
condition or a status my status
could have been doctor so this means
i am not a doctor but i want to imagine
the possibility in the past so we can do
that by using
bin here let’s look at a negative
example of this
this is a conversation so person a
says was that risa risa
was that risa person b says no
that couldn’t have been risa
she’s working from home today no
that couldn’t have been risa she’s
working from home today
so this expresses that it’s not
possible that that person
is risa so when you use a person’s
name here of course
it’s it’s kind of strange to imagine
it’s like a condition
or something like that uh so it’s
uh it’s it’s okay to use a person’s name
here when you’re
talking when you’re asking like is that
so-and-so or is that so-and-so
so couldn’t have been risa okay finally
one more example another coffee stealing
example my coffee’s gone
says person a my coffee’s gone and b
hmm could it have been taken by someone
else
could it have been taken by someone else
so
this is a passive structure yeah could
it have been
taken by someone else
or by someone is also okay so we can use
this bin
taken to create those passive structures
as well this will create yes
an even more uh what should i say an
even deeper
uh more complex sentence okay
so this is how we use bin i wanted to
cover that
the final point for today is an easy one
uh one that everyone can consider
pronunciation point so could have
could have and couldn’t have i in this
lesson
i have been using very clear
pronunciation
to focus on today’s grammar point
however
in everyday speech we don’t say could
have
and could not have or couldn’t have
in everyday speech could have sounds
like coulda
coulda and couldn’t have sounds like
couldn’t note this is for spoken
english only it’s not used in writing we
do not use
kuda and kudna in writing this is for
your spoken english only
so a couple i’ll read a couple examples
so i could have been
a doctor at native speed sounds like i
could have been a doctor
i could have been a doctor or that
couldn’t have been risa sounds like no
that couldn’t have been risa
no that couldn’t have been risa so
couldn’t
couldn’t have been in this case or could
have been
sounds like could have been could have
been so the key difference is this could
this comes in with the negative form
couldn’t have sounds like couldn’t
couldn’t
so you might think oh my gosh coulda and
couldn’t
sound so different but there’s a
different rhythm there
coulda couldn’t so listen for this
uh in your listening practice that
little sound
creates the negative form in everyday
speech okay
uh we’ll finish there wow that was great
that was a lot but i think we
got it um i’m looking now in the chat
for your questions nice example
sentences today everybody
great work with that some questions are
coming in how do i spell
architecture if you have a spelling
question i would suggest
using google but your spelling is good
just remove one c there
uh where can i get free pdf lessons
check the link below the video
if you are watching on youtube you are
youtube a person if you’re watching on
facebook check the link above the video
to get those
you need your name and email address
uh nura says so questions statements
like who could have uh don’t have
subjects after could right yes that’s
correct that’s correct
so i introduced in the question part of
today’s lesson
i introduced this one this question
pattern
um but yes when you where was your
question
uh when you’re asking like these kind of
wondering
style questions who could have blah blah
yeah you don’t have to
uh you don’t need to put a subject right
here
you’re kind of wondering who did this
thing
but you don’t always have to have that
that’s correct
okay other questions i don’t
see any uh some other examples are
coming in
um all right that looks good to me
so i’ll end there for this week thank
you as always
for joining me live it was very fun
a lot of good fun uh i’m gonna show you
the next lesson’s details i’ll be back
next week as always
next week uh next week oh my gosh august
12th
that reminds me this week’s lesson is
our three year anniversary of live
streams wow
time flies can you believe it so next
week we’ll be back
august 12th wednesday august 12th at 10
pm eastern
standard time 15 phrasal verbs
for work and for school hooray phrasal
verbs
everybody always asks me for help about
phrasal verbs
so i’m going to cover 15 phrasal verbs
that you can use at your job or that you
can use at school
i hope that these are helpful for you
right now uh ah anna lucia thank you so
much for your support in the youtube
chat that is awesome super cool
um so this will be next week please join
me
live or watch at your convenience you
can set a notification
on our channel or on youtube or on
facebook to make sure
you can join us live also some of you on
facebook were asking
about a youtube channel yes we do have a
youtube channel where you can check
all of our lessons it is youtube.com
just search for
english class 101
to find us so i will say goodbye there
please make sure to check out
uh the free stuff that you can get from
the link below the video
if you’re watching on youtube or above
the video if you are watching on
this is all free stuff to practice
conversational phrases and vocabulary i
will say goodbye so thanks so much
for liking and sharing this lesson enjoy
the rest of your week enjoy
the rest of your day and i will see you
again soon bye