How to Express Wishes about the Past in English

i think it’s rolling great hi everybody

and welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and today

we are going to talk about

how to express wishes about the past i’m

going to focus

on using grammar like should have and

could have so if you need to practice

these grammar points

i hope that you will find some good

opportunities some good chances

in today’s lesson while we wait

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uh

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find our lessons okay let’s look at

today’s lesson boards let’s take a

look today’s topic is how to express

wishes about

the past so uh if you joined

last week maybe you recognize this

grammar i wish i had

and i should have we’re going to cover

this again we’re going to review

then we’re going to practice i could

have and i couldn’t have

finally we’ll end with some useful

expressions

and some very very basic grammar uh

practice

okay cool so now everybody is here

let’s get going let’s talk about how to

use

uh our review point again so again

i covered this in last week’s live

stream and i want to review it

because one it’s a very useful grammar

point

uh and a useful pattern but also i want

to review

um the verb form we use many people uh

struggled a bit with this verb form last

week so

let’s review uh different example

sentences from last week if you joined

so the first uh way to express a wish

about the past is with i wish i had

i wish i had or i should have

i should have you can choose one of

these two

we tend to use i wish i had

together with a simple past tense like

point so when we say for example when i

was a kid

or this morning or last year

like we tend to express a specific point

in time

with i wish i had

you can use i should have to express the

same feeling

but you can drop it’s very common to

drop the specific

past point in time okay so

to make these patterns we use i wish i

had

plus the past participle form of the

verb

i should have plus past participle form

too

so a reminder the past participle form

is not

past tense it is not the infinitive form

so for example i wish i had eaten

or i should have eaten that uh special

form of the verb with eat

in this case needs to be used here last

week i saw many

uh in the chat using the ing form that’s

not

correct like eating or drinking that’s

not

correct so you need to use the past

participle form so

for today’s lesson of course you can

send your comments in the chat

you can send example sentences in the

chat and i will try to check

live okay let’s go to

some examples and a quick refresh what

does this mean

so this pattern means the desired action

did not happen so i wish i had or

i should have something something means

the desired action

the thing i want the action i wanted

did not happen and i feel unhappy

about it so let’s look at some examples

i wish i had taken some economics

classes

in school i wish i had taken some

economics classes

in school i wish i had taken

is my past participle verb some

economics

classes plural here in school

so i’ve used i wish i had pat this i

wish i had pattern

and i’ve used it together with this

simple like i’m i’m talking about

a past point in time or past period

in school here yeah so this is a very

common example sentence i wish i had

verb and a past point

quick note pronunciation note i wish i

had i wish

i had becomes reduced we reduced this to

i wish i’d

so at native speed i would say this

sentence like

i wish i’d taken some economics classes

in school it’s quite quick yeah

like i wish i had becomes i wish i’d

taken i wish i’d take him

so this i had in particular is reduced

to

i’d i wish i’d taken some economics

classes in school

okay so let’s look at the second example

here

i should have gone to bed

earlier last night i should have gone to

bed earlier

last night and it’s very common to use

this

without last night just i should have

gone to bed earlier

i should have gone to bed earlier right

here is another

pronunciation point i should have i

should have

this should have is reduced to shoulda i

should have gone to bed earlier

i should have gone to bed earlier okay

uh ah mario has a good question what

about i wish

i could as a instead of i wish i had

yeah

you can use i wish i could have

to express that something in the past

was

impossible but you wanted to do it

so i wish i could have taken some

economics classes in school totally

correct

totally correct it means it was

impossible

maybe your schedule was too busy for

example this one just means i did not do

it

i wish like i had so i wanted to

so the nuance changes there

hironi on youtube says i wish i had

studied more for my exam

good nice example okay um

taro dr says should of gone no that is a

very common mistake that native speakers

make a lot

in speech should have gone sounds like

shoulda gone shoulda gone so many native

speakers make a mistake right here

they use of uh o f

of totally incorrect totally wrong

should have

gone should have gone so please don’t

use of

there it is totally incorrect and yes

native speakers make that mistake a lot

why don’t i make a new video for ask

alicia there’s new videos every about

every week i think

i think so okay um i don’t see other

questions so let’s look at the negative

then yeah

okay let’s compare this to the negative

i wish i hadn’t

and i shouldn’t have i wish i hadn’t and

i shouldn’t have plus

past participle verb the same verb form

here yeah

i wish i hadn’t eaten or i shouldn’t i

shouldn’t have eaten

this shouldn’t have is should not have

and this i wish i hadn’t is i wish

i had not okay i wish i had not

verb i shouldn’t have is i should not

have

verb this means an undesirable action

happened so the negative pattern this

negative pattern means something in the

past

happened yes but it was not good

i do not want that action it was bad it

was not

not a good situation so let’s look at

some examples of this

i wish i hadn’t watched

so much tv this year i wish i hadn’t

watched so much tv this year

some people ask can i use two here t-o-o

no no you cannot use two i wish i hadn’t

watched

so much tv this year so that means i

watched a lot of tv

i wish i had not watched that much tv

uh stin says uh question alicia i wish

you were here how about that

grammatically correct grammatically

correct i wish you were here

expresses a wish about the present

though

to express a wish about the past i wish

you had been there

i wish you had been there so you can

change this

right here in these patterns to express

a wish about someone else

okay vivek is this a live or a premiere

this is alive

we’re live every week uh

what john carla on facebook says what

about present participle of that example

do you mean maybe this example

um like uh i’m not sure which example

that you mean

i’m not sure okay uh

let’s go to next example sentence okay

uh one more i should have spent more

time

studying last month i should have spent

more time

studying last month so in other words i

did not spend very much time

studying last month and now i feel sad

so i should have spent more time

studying last

month so here’s my past participle verb

i should have spent

more time studying all right

uh that’s it for this first part again

this is a review from last week so we’ll

cover some new stuff

from part two today okay um

babna says what about you wish yes you

wish you can use you wish to mean

like usually as a joke like you wish

like something you want that’s something

you want not me

so kind of different from today’s topic

okay let’s take a big take a break take

a break

and take a break oh that was funny and

then we’ll go to

part two for today so if you missed it

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course today’s lesson is about

how to express wishes about the past

with

should have and could have and a couple

other things

too so we are focusing on this past

thing right we’re focusing on talking

about like

things we regret or maybe things that

were funny or embarrassing

okay so let’s go to part two let’s look

at our lesson

boards very quickly so we talked about

this point

our review point from last week now

let’s talk about

could let’s talk about could have and

couldn’t have

and then we’ll end with some quick and

useful expressions yay

okay so also reminder if you have not

already please please please make sure

to like this video because it helps

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find the lesson and share of course too

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okay um let’s go to part two

part two could have okay

let’s talk about kudav this one confuses

many people so we have visuals we have

diagrams

okay so could have i could have

plus plus plus past participle verb

i could have past participle verb

so this pattern is the same as the

pattern we used in part one

right we use could that’s the only

change here i could have

plus our verb so what does this mean you

cannot use this

instead of should have like the grammar

is correct yes

but the meaning changes so what does

this mean

for example i could have eaten something

this means

an action was possible

in the past so here’s a timeline past

now future an action was possible

in the past but it did not happen it did

not happen

so we want to express possibility past

possibility okay an action was possible

in the past but it did not happen

so this one is very common

with if sentence patterns if i had

something something

i could have something something yeah we

practice conditionals quite often

on these channels so uh we’re going to

practice

a couple of these with an if pattern you

can send yours

in the chat i will try to check live

okay

uh okay i’m looking for your questions

too so let’s take a look at our could

have

example sentences then i

could have learned a new skill this year

if i had been able to focus

i could have learned a new skill this

year

if i had been able to focus

so let’s break this down here i’ll use

marker real quick

what’s happening here i could have

learned a new skill this year

so here is where my uh here’s where my

main clause

ends yeah i could have learned a new

skill this year

so right here oh this is really hard

okay

right here marks this past

action that was possible i could have

learned a new skill this year

but then i say if i had been able to

focus that means i was not

able to focus it was difficult for me to

focus it was a strange year

so it did not happen so we have these

two parts this if

part and this main part there are two

parts here so i’m not going to talk

about if conditionals today

but this is how we use could have let’s

look at another example this uses

the opposite order if is at the

beginning

of the sentence so if

i had seen your message

if i had seen your message i

could have helped you if i had seen your

message i could have helped you

so in this one we have right here is our

main clause i could have helped you it

goes to here

yeah i could have helped you so that

was the possible action i could have

helped you

it was possible but here i have

if i had seen your message if

i had seen your message this means i did

not see your message

i did not see your message so this did

not happen

i did not help you so we just want to

express

that past possibility also

at native speed we reduce these sounds

right here

i could have so this i could have

learned

sounds like i could have learned i could

have learned

this whole sentence i’ll read the

sentence one time at native speed

sounds like i could have learned a new

skill this year if i’d been able to

focus

so my reduction the short sounds come

right here i could have

and if i had

been this these are the main big

reductions here

i could have learned becomes coulda and

if i had been able this part becomes if

i’d

if i’d been able okay so

if i’d seen your message i could have

helped you

so please make sure to use that

reduction that short sound

in your speech okay uh some of you are

sending examples so i will read a few

out loud um

orban sorry if i said your name wrong

says i could have learned english

if i had had time if i had had

time so a quick reminder when

sometimes this verb is have the past

participle form is

had if i had had so there’s two hands

there it’s correct i know it seems

strange

it’s correct though if i had had time

okay

on facebook says what is the difference

between could have helped you like i

could have helped you

and could help you so i could have

helped you

is a past sentence like pattern

i could have helped you in the past i

could help you

means now so like uh do you have time

now

i could help you it’s like an offer now

i could have helped you means in the

past but

it didn’t happen okay i hope that helps

okay wow lots of examples are coming in

um

[Music]

aj gabriel says can we say i could have

played

played piano better

if i still learn it no you can

i’m not quite sure um what you want to

express maybe

i could have played piano better if i

had

studied more maybe so

this this is also a past structure yeah

a past structure

okay uh some of you

and your example sentences on youtube

you’re forgetting this half

i could have studied i could have

learned so don’t forget your helping

verb here yeah this is important

okay all right let’s go to the negative

form

then too uh the negative form

i couldn’t have past participle verb i

couldn’t have

past participle verb so i want to say

this one is not as common

as this one so we use this one

fairly often sometimes in speech

this is less common so what do we use

this pattern for

i could not have plus past participle

verb

we use this for an action or a condition

usually is it’s for a condition so

we want to express some state a status

so an action or a condition was

not possible in the past

because of a different past action

so what’s the difference i could have

here

expresses something was possible in the

past

so it’s uh it didn’t happen no but it

was possible

this one is the opposite this action in

the past

was not possible it was impossible

so we want to express that so one

example

again this one’s not as common so

i couldn’t have known

you were coming today i didn’t see your

message

i couldn’t have known you were coming

today i didn’t see your message

this means it was impossible

for me to know you were coming today

so i didn’t know and there was no chance

for me to know

because i didn’t see

your message i didn’t see your message

so this one we don’t really use these if

uh

clauses with we don’t really use that we

use

kind of a short past tense example sent

a

past tense explanation usually

so what’s happening here is i’m

expressing

this impossible action i couldn’t have

known you were coming today

and this sentence expresses the reason

it was impossible i didn’t see your

message

so we used this past tense yeah i didn’t

see

so this is different from the positive

here

so i’m expressing this is the condition

where this action would have been

possible

so this is quite different to the two

patterns

okay helen says what’s the difference

between could have and should have i

talked about should have in

the beginning of this lesson so please

check this stream

after it has finished rolling okay i’m

looking for your questions

uh yeah people are just writing i didn’t

see your message i didn’t see your

message

um i couldn’t have booked a ticket

because i didn’t know about it so again

don’t forget this helping verb i

couldn’t

have booked a ticket i couldn’t

have done something so don’t forget

those helping verbs

yeah okay um

[Music]

we can say and we could say what’s the

difference between them

can you give me an example like we can

we can use those to talk about uh

like examples or to imagine situations

yeah uh it kind of depends a bit okay

uh oh my gosh let’s go to the end like

that’s all for part

two if you have other questions you can

send them uh

of course to our question and answer

series

okay um let’s take one more quick quick

quick quick quick break and then we’ll

go to the very short

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yeah

okie dokie let’s go to part

three of course if you’re just joining

please do make sure please make sure to

like this video and share it so other

people

can find today’s lesson i will show you

our lesson boards

so that you can take a screenshot now

okay so here is our flow for today

um so first we talked about this part

right here how to express

wishes about the past with i wish i had

and i should have

and shouldn’t have and we just finished

this part i could have and i couldn’t

have now

let’s finish with some very basic very

kind of funny

expressions you can use uh to

react to situations so you can react or

you can share your feeling

about those past situations about past

regret

or about something funny or embarrassing

that happened

in the past okay

okay let’s go to the final points

someone says what is the difference

between has and had i have

many videos about haz and dad

uh please do a quick search of our

videos on our youtube channel maybe the

i’m not sure if it’s on the facebook

page but please make sure

to do a search for that i have made many

videos okay

useful expressions let’s take a look at

some useful expressions

for like reacting so how do you express

your feelings

about your past action for example

i ate too much junk food and i use a

pattern like oh

i shouldn’t have eaten so much junk food

yesterday

i feel sick that was so stupid

that was so stupid so this

that was so is a great pattern to use to

express your feelings about a past

condition or past action that you did

so i shouldn’t have eaten so much junk

food that was so stupid oh

no so stupid it means

it was not smart stupid is the opposite

of smart so

generally don’t don’t say someone else

is stupid that’s not very nice

but you can make a joke about yourself

with stupid that was so stupid

so when i do something not smart i often

say oh that was stupid

so you can use it too all right you can

use

other adjectives in this pattern you can

send some as well too

so that was so funny as well like oh

that was so embarrassing like oh my gosh

i shouldn’t have done the presentation

with a coffee stain on my shirt that was

so embarrassing embarrassing means

it causes us to feel shame we feel

ashamed

something uh that is embarrassing you

can also use

crazy crazy well that was so crazy so

something that was hard to believe or

just

like really really uh kind of

not normal you could say whoa that was

so crazy

uh dumb is the same as stupid so that

was so

dumb oh that was dumb so you can express

something was

not smart not smart

and fun of course you can be positive

too oh that was so

fun that was so fun yeah so you can use

these to react

as well for example your friend says oh

i wish i had joined you on that camping

trip last month

you can say oh yeah i wish you could

have joined

too that was so fun

or it was so fun okay

all right so let’s look at an example of

this

another one i wish i hadn’t forgotten my

wallet at home this morning that was so

stupid

that was stupid so here’s how we use the

two

together we express our regret

our wish about the past and we use

this pattern to express our feeling

about it

okay all right so let’s finish up

with a couple of just real quick

expressions that you can use

this one i can’t believe

i did that i can’t believe i did that

use this expression when you feel

surprised

or shocked about your action so for

example

i forgot my wallet at home like oh no i

forgot my wallet at home

i can’t believe i did that at native

speed

because i can’t believe i did that i

can’t believe i did that

so we’re shocked at our own behavior

here’s another one when you make a bad

decision

when you make a bad decision everybody

makes bad decisions sometimes

when you do that you can say that was

not

a smart move that was not

a smart move move means decision here

so imagine like chess a board game or

something

you make a move we call this a move a

noun

like mu and when it’s a dangerous

move or you lose something it’s like oh

that was a bad decision that was not

a smart move that was not a smart move

okay so at native speed that sounds like

oh that was not a snart that was not a

snark but

that was not a smart move that was not a

smart move

another thing you can do is this use

sarcasm say

great job but with this face so

when you make a mistake uh when you

regret something you can say

great job great

so this is a very common way to respond

sarcastically you can use this too

lastly lastly let’s end on a positive

note yeah something positive

i’ll do things differently next time

i’ll do things differently in the future

so this is i will yeah so i’m using will

because i decide

in the moment so i will do

things so that means like this situation

the things in this situation

i’ll do things differently

next time i’ll do things differently

next time or i’ll do

in the future so this is a nice positive

expression to finish today

i think okay phew

be covered at all great job all right so

that’s everything

for this week i’m looking for your

questions i’ll wait for another

minute or so and uh we’ll wrap up there

so uh while we wait i will show you our

lesson boards again one more time so you

can take a screenshot

if you would like there you go okay so

in this lesson we

practiced uh using i wish i had and i

should have

and the negative forms we practiced

could have and couldn’t have

and we reviewed some good expressions to

react and express your feelings about

these past

situations so i hope that you got some

good grammar review especially with

a should have and could have if you want

some more information about those there

are many videos on the channel i’ll put

i’ll get some links

uh i will put some links some reference

links in the

youtube description facebook i cannot

update your links on facebook but i can

update

youtube so i will put some reference

links if you want to practice some of

these

grammar points a little more so please

check the youtube description

you can get everything there there’s the

link to the sale

you can find uh me there too if you want

to follow me on social media

all of that is there so uh we’ll wrap up

for today

lastly of course next week next week’s

information

next week is oh my gosh december 16th

only a couple weeks left until the end

of the gosh

so we are going to talk positively next

week

the topic i’ve chosen is how to talk

about

your accomplishments your

accomplishments means the things that

you achieved the things that you did

so how do you express that so this is

good for

job interviews in particular and also

how to politely express your

accomplishments the things that you

achieve like

when you want to share on like social

media for example

how do you do that like politely

yeah so we’re going to do that next week

so please join me again

and we will have a good time okay so we

have to finish

uh today’s lesson uh i don’t see any

other questions so i’ll finish there for

today so thank you as always for joining

our live lesson this week uh thank you

for liking and sharing the video of

course and thank you for your

great questions and your great example

sentences that was fantastic

so enjoy the