How to use COULD and SHOULD for advice in English

my name is alicia and in this week’s

live lesson we are going to talk about

how to use could and should i’m going to

talk about three ways that we use these

words in today’s lesson we’re going to

talk about suggestions and advice we are

going to talk about how to express

regret and we are also going to talk

about possibility so i hope that

everyone gets some good practice with

these modal verbs there are lots and

lots of questions every week about how

to use these so i hope that this is a

useful lesson for lots of people so as

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at today’s lesson topics okay uh so

let’s go

to today’s lesson boards if you want to

take a screenshot you can do that

now here are today’s

lesson board so today we are going to

talk about how to use should and could

uh we’re going to focus just on these

i’m not going to cover

using the others today

we’re just gonna talk about these two

we’ll talk about suggestions and advice

and possibility and regret

uh so i hope that we can cover a lot of

things today okay

all right uh so let’s get started with

the first part of today’s lesson let’s

get into suggestions and advice okay i

can’t see today it’s really hard to see

okay so let’s get into

today’s first topic which is how to give

suggestions to give and receive

suggestions to give and receive advice

so first let’s take a look at this

grammar pattern so

the first pattern i want to talk about

is how we give recommendations to other

people

subject could or subject should is the

base pattern to make it negative we

include a not here before our infinitive

verb

and then we have our sentence so let’s

talk about the differences okay so let’s

talk about the difference between could

and should in this kind of pattern so

the could

use here could is used to show that the

suggestion or the advice is possible

possible so that means it’s just like a

neutral comment a neutral idea yeah so

this is something that um we just want

to say we can do this thing or it’s

possible to do this thing okay

so this is a question sometimes that

people have about the difference between

kid and

like does this mean high chance of

something or what so please note that

this means that there is just a neutral

possibility okay so that is point number

one point number two is about should

should so when we use should it means

that the suggestion or the advice is

some kind of recommendation yeah so it’s

like i’m sharing my opinion is kind of

the idea yeah so it’s like saying i

think that you should do this i’m giving

you my personal advice okay

so this is the difference between these

two and when we use this not form we

make it negative so let’s take a look at

some examples and if you send me your

examples

we can try to check things live

uh in the chat so let’s take a quick

look

at the first one so first one simple

pattern you should study every day you

should study every day so as i talked

about before this use of should

expresses the speaker’s opinion right it

expresses that we think that this is

true or that this is a good idea okay so

this is the feeling with this kind of

thing

should and could are both completely

correct in this sentence so

could in this position is also 100

correct but

it’s just giving like a suggestion in

terms of something that is possible when

we say should it’s saying this thing

is my personal recommendation not just

possibility okay

let’s look at the next one we should

leave soon we should leave soon okay so

this one again is a personal

recommendation yeah so with this one

we’re again expressing the speaker’s

feeling the speaker’s idea here so we

should leave soon we should leave soon

this is my personal opinion again we

could leave soon is also possible but

this communicates a different idea we

could leave soon we could leave soon

that simply reports it’s simply a report

of something yeah okay so this is the

difference between could and ship

some more examples let’s look at a

negative he should not speak at the

meeting

he should not speak at the meeting so

here’s a negative so this behavior

is not recommended that’s what this is

saying this behavior is not recommended

so i don’t think this is a good behavior

he should not speak at the meeting

okay another one they could arrive at

any moment okay so now we’re using could

here so

in this situation

we’re saying that this is something that

is possible to do

we’re saying it’s possible for them to

arrive at any moment we don’t know

for sure

when they’re going to arrive but we just

want to express that it is possible to

do that okay

good all right so the next one then

this next one is a conversation okay so

we’re looking at this conversation

we could go out for dinner so someone is

making a suggestion here this thing is

possible right we could go out for

dinner and the person that responds to

this says

it’s really cold outside we could not go

out for dinner let’s stay home and watch

a movie instead

so i wanted to use this one i wanted to

use this specific example because it’s

kind of something that you see a lot in

movies like media tv shows and so on

this is something that you sometimes

hear when characters are making plans

like hey we could do this

like in person a’s text we could do this

but then person b says uh we could not

we could not do that it’s like a kind of

funny friendly way to say oh well why

don’t we do something else instead i

like my other idea instead okay so this

is how we can express this and you’ll

probably see this used

uh in like media and tv shows and stuff

like that okay

all right so this is how we use could

and should okay so i’m looking to the

chat for your questions i’m very busy

today over my chat where’s my chat okay

let’s see some examples are coming in we

should pay more attention good uh

randall says can i say you shouldn’t do

this yes definitely okay

uh we should study more say some people

good good good can we use could in the

present that’s what this is we could do

this that’s examples here we’re talking

about recommendations and advice here

and now okay

so uh this is uh what we use to talk

about like our future ideas for like a

moment from now

okay uh other questions uh

other examples some of you are already

sending some past examples too we’re

going to talk about that later okay

rosa says i could arrive at nine o’clock

so again that’s that’s a good example it

just expresses some possibility

okay cool so this is our first part for

today okay how to use should and could

for suggestions and advice all right so

great that was part one that was part

one uh someone says is it british

english no i am not a british english

speaker i am an american english speaker

this is american english all right so

let’s take one super quick break and

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for okay cool so let’s go to part two

now okay part two for today’s lesson if

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okay

let’s get to part two part two is about

possibility possibility this one is

maybe the trickiest one the one where i

see

maybe the most mistakes maybe

so let’s let’s let’s work hard let’s

work hard on this one so i’m i’ve called

part to the possibility section

but uh i want to focus on this

pattern this pattern this use of should

and could with the b

verb so in part one we talked about

using could to express possibility like

for advice and suggestions so we also

have that

but i want to focus on this

verb use in part two here okay so let’s

practice using the b verb

the b verb so

when we make this pattern we have

subject plus should

in the negative not

and then be

and then the information after okay

then we have subject could not be so

subject should be or subject could be so

what is the difference here when we use

should in this pattern we express some

kind of expectation yeah so there’s some

again some kind of feeling

that we

expect something is true or not true in

this case okay and then on the other

hand when we use could

we express neutral possibility in the

positive or

impossibility in the negative something

could not be which means it is

definitely not possible for it to be

true

okay i’m looking for your questions okay

all right so

let’s take a look at how we use these

let’s look at some examples and break

them down okay

so first one this is my like my favorite

example to use with this grammar point

is hmm

my phone’s gps says this is the correct

address so we should be

in the right place

we should be in the right place so this

is something that you use when you are

looking for a location you’re on your

phone checking the map for some location

and you’re looking around like trying to

find it and this is the sentence we use

you think

you think you’re correct you expect

you’re correct you’re checking your

phone like

so this expresses you think that you’re

correct

we say we should be in the right place

like this should be

the right place

okay

so we’re expressing an expectation there

this this choice of should

shows that expectation again in this

sentence we can use good we could be in

the right place

that simply expresses it’s possible

should expresses expectation i expect we

are in the correct place

uh what about might yeah we can also use

might in this position as well so we

might be in the right place might has a

lower level of possibility or lower

level of expectation it’s the difference

i usually say this in other lessons

where i talk about all of these together

but when we use should there’s like a

higher level so for example should

expresses like 80 percent certainty

might is like 50 to 60. it’s a bit less

that’s the feeling here

yeah so we might be in the right place

okay

oh others okay i don’t see other

questions

okay some people are saying uh wilmer

writes today could be rain today could

be rainy today could be rainy okay

when you follow when you when you finish

your sentence like i left it this is

open because there are many different

ways we can end this sentence but if you

want to uh have one quick guide you can

use follow this be with an adjective

yeah it could be rainy yeah

okay

uh all right let’s continue to the next

example here is a negative

you shouldn’t so shouldn’t it should not

reduced you shouldn’t be in the office

today it’s your day off you shouldn’t be

in the office today it’s your day off so

what does this mean this means i expect

my coworker should not there is no

reason so i am pretty sure i’m pretty

certain there’s no reason for you to be

here today

why it’s your day off

so that’s why i would say you shouldn’t

be in the office today yeah in this

situation

couldn’t makes no sense you couldn’t be

in the office today that doesn’t make

any sense could not expresses something

is impossible so we cannot use both in

this situation okay

uh other

questions other questions uh rosa romero

says i could be in my work maybe i could

be at work i could be at work also

consider if you are saying i could be

about your current position it sounds

weird right why are you making a guess

about your current position like if i

said now hmm i could be at the

supermarket

like you know i’m not at the supermarket

right it sounds a little strange so

maybe if you want to make a joke you

could make a guess about your current

position yeah okay

so think about that right think about

what you want to communicate

all right on to the next one

the next uh pair or the next the next

one uses could could so here’s an

example a natural example of could be

could be okay so he’s not answering his

phone

he’s not answering his phone he’s not

picking up his phone

he could be

speaking to a client

he could be speaking to a client so this

expresses it’s possible it’s possible

he’s speaking to a client right now

that’s the reason he didn’t pick up the

phone right

so in this case

he’s not answering his phone he should

speaking to a client sounds kind of

weird we’re expecting

he should these two don’t really match

if we use this one introduces a

question like hmm he’s not answering his

phone i wonder why

and then we have this idea this is

possible oh he could be speaking to a

client that might be the reason that’s

the feeling of this kind of sentence

okay

juancho says i could be playing soccer

yes

you could be maybe i could be playing

soccer right now instead of doing this

task that i don’t want to do for example

um some okay i want to mention maybe

uh there are some examples that are

coming in that use the infinitive verb

here

so for example like i could be eat or i

could be sleep

use the ing form of a if you want to use

a verb use the ing form here so like

i could be eating lunch right now for

example or i could be taking a vacation

right now so if you want to use a verb

here use the ing form yeah

maybe that would be a good guide here

okay

alrighty let’s go to

the next one

which is right uh shouldn’t or shouldn’t

oh the apostrophe it’s the it’s the uh

the one with the apostrophe right here

yeah i i put it in the wrong spot i was

changing colors and i moved my

apostrophe over one but yes it should be

right here it should be right here okay

uh all right let’s go to the next

example then

the next example is a conversation so

imagine you see someone when you are out

in public like you see your co-worker at

a shopping mall for example okay you say

hey is that a co-worker is that our

co-worker

and then uh

second person says no that couldn’t be

her

she’s working today no that couldn’t be

her she’s working today so that means

it’s not possible

no that’s not possible it’s not possible

that that’s her she’s working today okay

so we use this couldn’t

to express something is not possible

that couldn’t be her it is not possible

for that to be her because she’s working

today i know this so we use these two to

show that something is possible or

impossible a condition or a temporary

action is possible or impossible

okay cool all right so here is how we

use this grammar point these grammar

points for

possibility possibility okay so awesome

let’s take one more quick break and then

we will go to the last part expressing

regrets we’re expressing regrets so

we’ll use uh the past tense forms here

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cool so with that said let’s go

to the final part of today’s lesson part

three is looking part three the focus of

part three

is on regret regret so let’s talk about

how we use these points to express

regret what is regret

regret is a sad feeling about the past

something we did incorrectly like a

mistake we made or something we did not

and we feel bad about it or we feel sad

about it how do we express that we use

these two words we also use wood

sometimes too let’s focus on these for

today okay

so how do we use these for regret we use

this pattern

subject should or could

have

past participle verb

should have past participle verb

to make it negative we put not

before

have so i should not have verb

he shouldn’t or sorry he could not have

verb

okay so we used these patterns to

express regrets

things that happened and things that

didn’t happen

so if you want more practice the today’s

lesson will be a kind of quick a short

introduction to this grammar point if

you want to practice this more i have

many videos on the channel about this i

will link them in the youtube

description after this lesson too so if

you want some homework or some review

check it out okay

so let’s break this down should let’s

look at should when we use should in

this pattern

again we’re expressing some

recommendation like this is my opinion

oh i should have done this or i

shouldn’t have done that it’s like your

personal opinion your personal feeling

about something your recommendation for

yourself or for another person okay

when we use could

we express something was possible

or impossible

so he could have done something means

that was possible in the past or

he couldn’t have done something means

that thing was impossible impossible

okay so let’s take a look at some

example sentences to practice this point

this one can be kind of tricky okay

first one very very common one ah i

should have studied for the test i

should have studied for the test this

means i didn’t study

i didn’t study now i feel bad about it

so i should have studied for the test

some common mistakes i see with this

grammar point

i should

study or i should have study so no we

can’t use study here i should have

studied

past participle yeah i should have

studied for the test why why didn’t i

study

right i should have studied for the test

oh that was a mistake i failed it right

i didn’t get a very good grade okay

all right another one

you should have apologized to her you

should have apologized to her so you’re

giving a recommendation to someone else

after an argument or a fight or a big

problem whatever you should have

apologized to her that was rude or

something so this means

this is a past situation the other

person did not apologize oh no so we’re

saying you should have you should have

that was a mistake you should have

apologized to her maybe you can like you

you could apologize to her tomorrow so

you can follow up with those present

tense ones that we practiced in part one

two

oh you’re sending lots of examples uh

gia says i shouldn’t have hurt his

feelings very nice

some others from this part i should have

gone to the doctor says miguel good okay

sonny says i shouldn’t have let the

opportunity went away ah i shouldn’t

have let the opportunity go we use that

expression to let something go yeah we

we don’t change that go to went to let

something go to let an opportunity go so

just make that one change and it’s

perfect okay

rosa says we should not have eaten cake

and cookies very good eric says i should

have listened to you good

leonard says oh there’s so many chats

okay i shouldn’t have

done that maybe not then that i

shouldn’t have done that or i could have

done or been better very nice

everybody’s doing a great job here

okay

i don’t see questions about this section

so i’m going to continue on ah there’s

so many ads on facebook i can’t see your

questions okay

let’s go uh to the next example sentence

then the next one is a negative someone

said this earlier in the chat i think we

shouldn’t have eaten junk food we

shouldn’t have eaten junk food so this

one should not is the negative and have

eaten so not we shouldn’t have eat or we

shouldn’t have ate we shouldn’t have

eaten

junk food we shouldn’t have eaten junk

food this means i did eat junk food i

ate a lot of junk food and now i feel

bad

now i don’t feel very good so we

expressed that with this oh we shouldn’t

have eaten junk food

keep in mind that when we use these

especially when we’re not feeling good

the sentence becomes very kind of mushy

so what do i mean

when we say

this sentence for example when we feel

sick we don’t speak very clearly we

don’t say oh we shouldn’t have eaten

junk food it sounds like oh shouldn’t

have been junk food it sounds really

kind of smooshed together shouldn’t

eaten so this half

sounds like a

in native speech

that’s what this pronunciation is like

okay

in the positive you should apologize to

her you should have apologized her i

should have studied for the test so this

have sounds like just uh shoulda shoulda

okay also a native speaker mistake with

this grammar point some native speakers

write of instead of have because of this

pronunciation point when we speak it

sounds like should of shoulda or should

that’s incorrect native speakers

incorrectly right of here a lot it’s not

right don’t do that should have is

correct

okay let’s go on to the next one oh my

gosh i’m already late okay uh let’s talk

about some good examples really quick

okay i could have helped you with your

work

i could have helped you with your work

so for example if you know your

co-worker is super busy

you can help them right but if you don’t

know your co-worker is super busy

you can’t help them right you don’t know

that they need help so

if you want to express like ah why

didn’t you tell me i could have helped

you with your work a past tense

situation you can use this

could have helped you means it was

possible for me to help you in the past

we didn’t we would not use should here i

should have helped you with your work

would be if maybe you rejected someone

like they said please help me and you

said no and you think oh i should have

helped you

could have again expresses that

possibility

okay let’s go to the last two times

running out she could have sent a

message to tell us about the problem she

could have sent a message to tell us

about the problem so that means she did

not send us a message to tell us about

the problem like why she could have sent

a message why didn’t she that’s strange

so we’re expressing a mistake in the

past she could have sent a message to

explain the problem but she didn’t

right so we often use this grammar point

to talk about these past problems past

mistakes

okay

uh osushi says you don’t make the v

sound when you pronounce shouldn’t have

naturally it depends a little bit on the

sentence and on the person so sometimes

we say i should have studied for the

test some people might say you should

have should have maybe it just depends

on how fast we’re speaking often though

we just say shoulda should have should

have studied for the test should’ve is

also possible too there are a couple of

different ways that we make this sound

okay

can you please repeat about the ing form

after b that was in part two so i don’t

have time to go back to part two you can

watch this video again though because it

is being recorded

okay let’s go to the last part uh some

examples on facebook are coming in one

says i could have repaired the car

myself nice okay so that sounds like

there was a problem with the way your

car was repaired nice okay salomon says

i could have bought the car good so i

didn’t buy the car okay

uh my food says you should have tried it

on before purchasing it perfect very

nice very nice good one for shopping you

should have tried it on before

purchasing it or you should have tried

it on before buying it purchasing sounds

a little more formal yeah we use buy

okay ahmet says i should not have missed

your lessons oh

did you miss my lesson that’s okay okay

let’s go to the last point we could not

have prevented this mistake

it was simple human error

simple human error we could not have

prevented this mistake what does prevent

mean to prevent something means to stop

something from happening to stop

something before it happens yeah so we

could not have prevented this mistake it

was impossible to prevent this mistake

it was simple human error that means the

cause was simple human error just one

person

made a small human mistake so

we could not have prevented this it just

happens sometimes

so we express this with the negative we

could not have prevented this

okay

all right so that is our final point for

today we had a lot i’m very late i have

to stop so if you missed it i will put

up the screen uh the lesson boards for

today so you can take a screenshot all

right so here are today’s lesson boards

if you’re ready

so we talked about how to use should and

could for suggestions and advice for

possibility and for regret as i said uh

there are i’ve made yeah i’ve made a lot

of videos

about this topic including wood and

might and so on also so after the live

stream i will put some links in the

youtube description if you want to

practice these grammar points with some