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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