How to Use Should in English English Modal Verbs
Hi, I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn about using
the modal verb ‘should’ in English.
Do you know how to use ‘should’ in English?
Like most modal verbs, ‘should’ has many different
meanings and can be used in many different
ways.
In this lesson, you can learn how to use ‘should’
correctly and naturally in different situations.
Let’s start with a simple question:
What does ‘should’ mean?
This question sounds simple, but when you
think about it, it’s not so easy to answer.
Look at a sentence:
“You shouldn’t work so hard.”
Could you change this sentence, so that you
keep the same meaning, but without using ‘should’?
Think about it.
There’s more than one possible answer; here’s
one:
“I think it would be better for you not to
work so hard.”
Here’s another:
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you
to work so hard.”
These are not the only two; there are more
possibilities.
From these examples, you can see that when
you use ‘should’, you’re talking about what
you think is right, or what you think the
best idea for someone.
For example, if I say:
“You shouldn’t eat mushrooms if you don’t
know what kind they are.”
I mean that it’s best for you not to eat
mushrooms if you aren’t sure what they are.
After all, they might be poisonous.
Now, we’re going to look at different meanings
of should in more detail.
Keep the ideas from this section in mind through
this lesson.
Hopefully they’ll make it easier to connect
the different ideas you’re about to see!
Part two: using ‘should’ to give advice.
This is one of the most common ways to use
‘should’: giving advice to other people.
For example:
“You shouldn’t eat pizza for dinner every
night.”
“You should watch “Mad Men”; it’s an
interesting show.”
In these cases, I’m giving you advice—telling
you what I think is a good idea for you to
do.
Easy enough, right?
Try to think of your own examples.
What kind of things do we give advice about?
Many things: work, study, hobbies, dating,
lifestyle…
Pause the video and practise: give yourself
one piece of advice!
Ok?
Let’s move on.
Part three: using ‘should’ to express your
opinion.
You can use ‘should’ to say what you think
is the right thing for someone else to do.
For example:
“He should tell her how he feels.”
“I think she should apply for that job.”
This is quite similar to giving advice, except
that you’re talking about a third person.
You can also use ‘should’ in this way to talk
about more general subjects.
For example:
“The government should raise taxes on the
rich.”
“Everybody who works should get four weeks’
paid holiday a year.”
Do you agree with these ideas?
Try to think of one more example on a different
topic.
What subjects do you have strong opinions
on?
Pause the video and make a sentence with ‘should’.
Say it out loud!
Up to here, we’ve seen how to use ‘should’
to talk about the present or the future.
However, you can also use ‘should’ to talk
about the past.
Let’s see how:
Part four: using ‘should’ to criticise past
mistakes.
Do you know how to use ‘should’ in the past?
What do you have to add after the verb?
Let’s see an example:
“You should have asked me for help.”
You can see that to use ‘should’ in the past,
you need to add ‘have’ plus a past participle
after the verb ‘should’.
Let’s practise this quickly.
Can you complete these two sentences to make
them past?
“He should (book) the tickets earlier.”
“They shouldn’t (spend) so much money on
a car.”
Think about your answers.
Pause the video if you need time.
Let’s check:
“He should have booked the tickets earlier.”
“They shouldn’t have spent so much money
on a car.”
Next, let’s think about what ‘should’ means
in these sentences.
We use ‘should’ in this way to talk about
mistakes in the past; often, we use ‘should’
in this way to criticise ourselves or other
people.
For example:
“You should have studied harder for your exam!”
Meaning: you didn’t study hard for your
exam, and I think this was a mistake.
“I shouldn’t have told her.”
Meaning: I told her, but I wish I hadn’t;
it was a mistake to tell her.
What about you?
Can you think of something you should have
done differently in the past?
Try to make your own example sentences!
For extra practice, you could even write your
sentences down.
Now, we have one more meaning of ‘should’
to look at:
Part five: using ‘should’ to talk about probability.
We said at the beginning that you use ‘should’
to talk about the right thing to do.
That’s true for all the meanings of ‘should’
we’ve seen until now.
However, there’s one exception, one meaning
of ‘should’ which doesn’t fit this pattern.
Look at two sentences.
Can you see what ‘should’ means?
“There should be some milk left.”
“He should be here soon.”
Remember: ‘should’ here has a completely different
meaning to everything we’ve seen so far.
Can you work it out?
In these sentences, ‘should’ expresses probability.
If I say:
“There should be some milk left.”
I mean that I think there’s probably some
milk left.
By probably I mean ‘more than 50% chance.’
So I might say this if I remember buying milk
a few days ago, and I think there’s some
left, but I’m not 100% certain; I think
there’s probably still some milk in the
fridge.
In our other example, if I say:
“He should be here soon.”
I mean that he’ll probably get here soon.
For example, imagine your friend is coming
to visit you.
You know that his train arrives at 12.00 and
it takes twenty minutes to get to your house
from the station.
The time now is 12.20.
You could say, “he should be here soon.”
How do you know if ‘should’ means “I think
this is the right thing” or “I think this
is probable?”
It depends on the context.
Usually, it’ll be obvious.
For example, if I say:
“You should definitely go to the British Museum
if you’re in London.
It’s really worth a visit.”
It’s clear here that ‘should’ means “I
think it’s a good idea for you to go to
the British Museum” and not, “I think
you’ll probably go to the British Museum.”
That just doesn’t make sense.
Similarly, if I say:
“It should take about 30 minutes to get there
by car.”
…then ‘should’ clearly expresses probability.
There’s no way for this sentence to be advice
or criticism, or anything like that.
Now, you’ve seen all the possible meanings
of ‘should’.
Finally, let’s review what you’ve learned
in this class.
‘Should’ is mostly used to express what you
think is right or what you think is the best
thing.
So, you can use ‘should’ to give advice or
to express your opinion about different topics.
Remember that ‘should’ is not the same as
‘must’ or ‘have to’.
When you use ‘should’, you aren’t talking
about obligations or things which are necessary,
you’re talking about what you think is best.
You can also use ‘should’ + ‘have’ + past
participle to talk about the past.
We use ‘should’ in this way to criticise past
mistakes.
There’s one way to use ‘should’ which doesn’t
fit this pattern: ‘should’ can mean that something
is probable.
You need to use the context to work out what
‘should’ means, although it’s quite obvious
in most cases.
Remember that probable here has a specific
meaning: it means the chance of something
happening is higher than 50%.
That’s the end of the lesson.
I hope you learned something new about what
‘should’ means and how to use it.
You can find more great free English lessons
on our website: Oxford Online English dot
com.
Thanks for watching!
See you next time!