Using should in the past and future

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hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson i’m going to talk about using

should i’m going to explain using should

for the past

and for the future so i’m going to

introduce how you

make statements and questions for past

tense use of should

and i’m going to talk about the same

thing for future tense uses of shid

so let’s begin i want to start this

lesson by talking about the past

tense version when we use should in the

past

in a positive statement we do it to

express

regret so regret means a sorry feeling

or a sad

feeling so it expresses regret for

something that did not

happen so this is a key point here yes

it’s a positive statement

but we’re talking about something that

did not happen

and we feel sad about it so to visualize

this

i’ve created a timeline here with the

past over here

now the present our conversation and

future

so if you can imagine uh when we make

positive

statements with should in the past tense

we can imagine it’s something that did

not happen so it’s

before the present before now did not

happen

and we feel sad about it so

when we want to make a sentence like

this we can use a pattern such as this

one this is a very basic pattern

we can use subject plus should

plus have and then the past participle

form of a verb

so this part right here this makes it a

past tense statement we’ll see this is

quite different when we’re making future

tense statements

so i’ll show some examples of this in

just a moment

let’s compare this then to the negative

form

when we make a negative statement using

should

in the past it expresses regret again

that sad feeling it expresses regret

for something that happened so yes it’s

a negative sentence

but this action happened it was real

so again to imagine this visually

in the past something actually did

happen

so i used a check mark here this is a

true event a real event

and we regret or there’s some kind of

sad

feeling about that thing so

when we make sentences in the negative

with this grammar point

we can use subject again plus should

here we’ll use should not and then

complete this pattern with have and the

past participle verb

so the only change here is using not

when we make the negative there’s

nothing here so

this is the basic kind of statement

structure

for past tense statements with should

then i’ve added here a simple question

structure

a simple information question structure

here

we can use a wh question wh means who

what when where why

how those kinds of things so we use a wh

question with should plus our subject

have and the past participle verb

so i’ll explain a few examples of this

in just a moment

with this i want to continue to the next

part over here

which is pronunciation tips so

you’ve noticed perhaps that should and

have and

should not have when people are speaking

these become reduced or these become

much shorter

so you’ll hear these two used most

commonly

we don’t really say should have or

should not have

so clearly when we’re making positive

sentences

the most common reduction is this should

have

should have so should have this is

should apostrophe

v e should have should have this should

comes from should have so this

have it’s like we drop the ha

part and just use the v sound

so should’ve should’ve to make it even

shorter you’ll often hear people use

shoulda

shoulda so this uh sound is like taking

only this a here in have but it just

becomes

very short i shoulda i should not is the

negative form of this so let’s continue

on

as i’ve just said shouldn’t have we

contract this

should not here should not contracts to

shouldn’t shouldn’t shouldn’t have but

to make it even shorter we often say

shouldn’t shouldn’t so positive

shoulda negative shouldn’t

shouldn’t so let’s take a look at some

examples that

use these patterns first let’s look at

two

positive statements i should have

studied more i should have studied more

and we should have gone to the store we

should have gone

to the store so here we see should

is followed by have and then the past

participle form of the verb

in this case studied and gone so this

shows us that we have a past

tense statement these statements express

regret

so when we’re speaking quickly we

probably won’t say i should have studied

more

or we should have gone to the store i

would say

i should have studied more and we should

have gone to the store

so as i explained this pronunciation

is the most common one shoulda i should

have studied more we should have gone to

the store

let’s compare this to two negative

statements then

she shouldn’t have done that so here

i’ve already reduced this

shouldn’t she shouldn’t have done that

and

you shouldn’t have had so much to drink

so again

these two express regret for something

that

did happen so in both of these sentences

that something whatever this is this was

a bad thing the speaker thinks this was

bad

in the second sentence as well the

speaker thinks this was a bad

choice so expressing regret about

something that happened

then again as i talked about here i

would reduce this

even more i’ve got shouldn’t in both of

these sentences

but in everyday speech we would probably

say

she shouldn’t have done that and you

shouldn’t have had so much to drink

you shouldn’t have done that you

shouldn’t have had so much to drink so

this

shouldn’t and shoulda these are key

pronunciation points that will help you

kind of in your listening and also to

help you sound a little more natural

okay let’s finish this part by looking

at two

questions then first what should we have

done differently what should we have

done

differently and where should we

have gone where should we have gone so

both of these they maintain they keep

that feeling of regret when you’re using

a question like this

you’re asking about something it would

have been

better to do in the past so it’s a

question that means

an action happened yes and these

questions

are about improvements to that action so

here for example what should we have

done

differently what should we have done

differently means for example

the speaker or a group here speaking

made a decision but perhaps it was not

the right decision or it was a bad

decision

so the speaker’s asking what choice

what should we have done differently is

like saying

what do you think would have been better

in the past what should we have done

differently

same thing in the second sentence where

should we have gone

where should we have gone so maybe the

speaker

went to the wrong location and they’re

asking for advice

in the past of course we cannot change

this but this is actually a common way

that we ask for like future advice so

it’s recognizing oh i made a mistake in

the past

so maybe next time i have a similar

situation

what do you recommend but we use this

kind of grammar to ask these sorts of

questions like okay

in this case where should i have gone

what should we have done differently

so that you can think about that for the

future so these are situations where you

might use

questions like these okay with that then

with past tense

let’s move on to looking at future uses

of should so let’s begin again

with positive statements so when we make

a positive statement with

should we’re expressing advice actually

so we don’t have that

regret feeling here we’re expressing

advice

and the speaker thinks this advice is a

good idea so again to visualize it

here we’re looking at a different point

in time

with the past we were talking about

something that finished or

something that did not happen here we’re

talking about an

action in the future so here is my

conversation

now when we make a positive statement

with should

we’re talking about something the

speaker thinks is a good idea

in the future an upcoming thing so i’ve

marked it with a check

to make a positive statement a simple

pattern is

your subject plus should and here the

present

tense form of your verb so in past tense

we use

this past participle form here we’re

using the present tense form of the verb

so no verb change is necessary here

now let’s compare this to a negative

statement

so a negative statement with should also

expresses

advice yes but the speaker thinks

it’s a bad idea this is a bad idea

so positive good idea negative bad idea

with

should then to make a negative statement

an advice statement about the future we

use

subject plus should not and again

the present tense form of the verb so

you’ll notice again this is very similar

to the past tense form just keep in mind

we also don’t use have there’s no have

in present or rather future forms of

this

okay then again let’s finish with a

simple question pattern too

when we make a question like an

information question we can begin

with this wh question word plus should

our subject and then the present tense

form of the verb

so this is a key point for the

difference between these two we’re using

different

verb forms for future and past tenses

okay let’s move along then to some

pronunciation points here

this one is much shorter um than the

past tense version

but uh when we’re using should

to make a positive statement there’s not

really a change

should uh here though i would recommend

definitely use the reduced

shouldn’t shouldn’t it’s going to sound

more natural than should

not so just a quick point here try to

use this

shouldn’t sound okay so let’s look at

some examples that use this

let’s start with some positive

expressions

first you should find a new

job you should find a new job and he

should work

harder he should work harder so you’ll

notice here again we have should

plus our present tense verb form so

find and work are both present tense

verbs you should find a new job

he should work harder so the speaker

thinks these are

good ideas so these are positive

statements positive advice

uh bits i guess let’s compare this to

some negative statements then she

shouldn’t

give up she shouldn’t give up and you

shouldn’t eat

so much junk food you shouldn’t eat so

much junk food

so these two are expressing something

the speaker thinks is a bad

idea so in the first sentence she

shouldn’t give up

in other words to give up is bad

or giving up is a bad idea

in the second sentence you shouldn’t eat

so much

junk food is saying eating a lot of junk

food is a bad

idea so here you’ll notice maybe too

i’ve called this future these are just

kind of general life

recommendations i call it the future

here because

it’s like saying from now on from this

conversation

on this is my advice for you so maybe

especially in a sentence like this you

shouldn’t eat so much junk food

maybe the speaker is looking at someone

eating a lot of junk food and they give

this advice

you shouldn’t eat so much junk food okay

so let’s finish then with a couple of

questions

so common questions first one what

should i

do what should i do a very common advice

question and second when should we leave

when should we leave so at native pace i

would say

what should i do and when should we

leave

so these are common questions these are

asking for advice

in the future here so asking what do you

think

in other words what’s your opinion what

should i do

in other words what do you think is a

good idea

for me for the future and in the second

sentence

when should we leave what time do you

think is a good time

to leave in the future so we can make

these

kinds of questions as well giving or

rather asking for

future advice okay so that’s a quick

introduction to using should for past

tense statements and questions and for

future tense

statements and questions i hope that it

helped you of course if you have any

other questions or if there’s something

else you’d like to know about this

grammar point

please feel free to let us know in the

comments of this video

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lesson and i will see you again soon

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