How to use the modal SHOULD in English

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I'm Rebecca from engVid.

In this lesson I'll show you how to use the word "should" correctly and easily in English.

Now, native speakers use the word "should" all the time; we use it to talk about the

present, the past, and the future.

And by the end of this lesson, you should be able to use it just as easily.

So, let's get started.

So, first of all, "should" is what's called a modal verb.

What does that mean?

It's called a helping verb.

"Modal verb" just means a helping verb, and that means we cannot use the word "should"

by itself; we have to use it as a helper with another verb.

For example, we cannot say: "I should today".

I should what today?

So, we could say: "I should study today.", "I should work today.", "I should sleep today."

So, you have to say: "I should" something with another...

You cannot use it by itself, and that's why it's called a modal verb or a helping verb;

you use it with something else.

But besides that, it's actually very easy because it doesn't change in the way that

regular verbs change.

And that's what I'll show you now.

So, let's look at some examples of how we use the word "should".

In the present tense, we could say: "I should study today."

In the future tense, look, we say: "I should study tomorrow."

There's hardly any difference.

The difference was here, right?

So this part is really easy.

What's a little bit different is when we want to talk about the past.

Then we say: "I should have studied yesterday."

So we'll be focusing on this one more; because as you can see, the present and the future

are really easy for you to construct because you're just saying "should" with the verb.

Now, what does it mean when we use "should"?

What does it actually mean?

Well, we can use it for different reasons; we can use it to give advice.

For example: "You should stop smoking."

Or we can use it to express an obligation or something that somebody needs to do.

For example: "You should do your taxes."

Or we can also use "should" to express an expectation; something that we think will

For example: "Okay, you're leaving now.

You should arrive there in about half an hour."

So we can use "should" in these different ways.

Very often it's used in the first way to give advice.

And when we say it, all of these things, when we use "should" for all of these reasons,

we can use it to give advice to ourselves.

For example: "I should exercise more."

We can use it to give advice to others.

For example: "They should invite her to the party."

Or we can also use it to refer to things.

"Oh, I fixed your computer; it should work well now."

So we can use it in all of these different ways.

So now let's go to this one, which was how to use "should" to talk about things in the

Why would you use "should" to talk about something in the past?

Because you want to say that you wish that you had done something.

And as we all know, we're always in this kind of situation where we have plans and then

something didn't happen, and we wish that we had done something.

So, then we use this form: "I should have" plus the verb.

And the verb here is the past participle.

So, we say: "I should have" plus the past participle of a regular verb or often irregular

I'm going to show you some examples so you understand exactly how to do that.

Now, this is actually very, very useful because we don't just say things, like: "I should

have studied yesterday."

In real life, we use this form to say these kind of really important sentences.

For example: "I should have called you on time.

I'm sorry you got worried.", "I should have thanked you.", "I should have apologized.

Or: "I should have helped you."

Can you see how useful this word "should" is-okay?-in real life?

Or, even if we use the negative form of "should", which is "shouldn't", we could say: "I shouldn't

have forgotten your birthday.

Did you have a good time?"

Or: "I shouldn't have shouted at you.

Or: "I shouldn't have hurt you.

Sorry I hurt your feelings."

So, you can say that, this form of using "should" in the past is actually very, very useful.

Now, let's look at this chart so you understand exactly what's going on.

So, let's take the subject first: "I", "You", "We", "They", "He", "She", okay?

It could be anything.

So let's just take "I": "I should" or "I shouldn't".

So, first of all, we can use "should" in the positive form or the negative form, and then

with that we can use "should" with regular verbs, like: "work" or irregular verbs, like:

"go".

So, let's try that one.

"I should work today."

or "I shouldn't go there tomorrow."

That's pretty simple; just using "should" plus the base form of the verb for the present

and for the future.

Now, what happens when we want to talk about the past?

I told you already: We have to add a little bit more, but it's not hard because it doesn't

change; it's always like this.

So, what it is, is: "I should have", okay?

You have to say that; doesn't matter which subject you use.

"I should have", "You should have", "We should have", "They should have", "He should have",

"She should have" - that part stays the same.

Then you, if it's a regular verb, we're using the past participle form, which is the same

as the past tense, so you're just usually adding "ed" or "d".

So: "I should have worked yesterday."

Or with an irregular verb, you have to know: What's that third form?

So, for example, with the verb "go", we have: "go", "went", "gone", so we use that third

form which is called a past participle with this.

So, we would say something like: "I should have gone there yesterday."

Or: "I shouldn't have gone there yesterday."

Have you got that?

So that's what we're going to practice now.

We're going to do some exercises; and mainly, we are focusing on this one-okay?-to talk

about the past because I think that the present, talking about the present and talking about

the future is really easy when we're using "should", but what's a little bit more confusing

sometimes to students is this one.

So we're going to practice this in just a second.

So, the way we're going to do this exercise is like this: You see here some checkmarks

and some x's, so where you see the checkmark I want you to say...

Say it out loud because it will help you.

Say: "should have" and the "x" means it's negative, and there you can say: "shouldn't

And what you will need to do along the way is to change the verb that goes after it to

put it into the past participle.

And sometimes the verb is going to be a regular verb, and sometimes it's an irregular verb.

When it's an irregular verb, how do you know how it changes?

Hmm, well, you need to learn that by heart.

There is usually, in every grammar book, a chart at the end which gives all the irregular

And, in fact, we have a resource on this in our... on our website, which I've written

actually quite a while ago, which has a lot of the irregular verbs in different categories

to help you learn them in case you don't know them, but probably you've heard them and that's

another great way to learn.

So, let's get started.

Number one: "Jack _________ do his homework."

So, we want to make it a positive sentence, so we're going to say: "Jack should have",

what did we do to this verb?

Not "do", but: "Jack should have done his homework."

Sorry if I didn't mention it, but what we're doing here is we're changing all of these

Because that's the more challenging one.

Remember I told you?

So that's what we're trying to do.

"Should have done".

Sorry, number two: "I _________ rehearse my speech."

"I should have rehearsed my speech."

"Rehearse" is a regular verb, so...

And it ends with "e", so we only added a "d", all right?

Number three: "They _________ spend so much."

"They shouldn't have", what do we do to this verb?

Not "spend", but "spent".

"They shouldn't have spent so much."

Number four: "We _________ meet them at 6:00."

"We should have", what happens here?

"We should have met them at 6:00."

Number five: "She _________ arrive so late."

Make it negative.

"She shouldn't have arrived so late."

"Arrive" is another regular verb, so we...

And it happens to also end in "e", so we only added "d".

Next: "I _________ know better."

People say this a lot.

Let's hear the proper phrase: "I should have" not "know" but "known better".

"I should have known better."

In fact, many years ago, the famous rock band, the Beetles, had a song called: "I Should

Have Known Better".

And if you go on our Facebook page, I'll see if we can put a link to that in case you've

never heard it.

"I should have known better."

What does that mean: "I should have known better"?

It means I should have been smarter; I should have been more intelligent.

That's what it means.

Number seven: "He _________ shout at them."

Make it negative: "He shouldn't have shouted at them".

"Shout" is a regular verb, and we add "ed".

Number eight: "We _________ buy a cake."

Positive, so: "We should have", not: "buy a cake" - "We should have bought a cake."

"We should have bought a cake."

Number nine: "I _________ take so long."

Make it negative: "I shouldn't have taken so long."

This is an irregular verb: "take", "took", "taken".

"I shouldn't have taken so long."

Number ten: "You _________ say anything."

"You shouldn't have", not "say", but: "You shouldn't have said anything."

Now I'm just going to very quickly move through the basic form here so that you get to hear

Finally it becomes...

Learning something, it's not only by studying the grammar; of course it starts with that

or sometimes that happens along the way, but also by training your ears and paying attention

to what you read, what you see, what you hear.

So, let's just hear it now.

"Jack should have done", "I should have rehearsed", "They shouldn't have spent", "We should have

met", "She shouldn't have arrived", "I should have known", "He shouldn't have shouted",

"We shouldn't...

We should have bought", "I shouldn't have taken", and "You shouldn't have said".

"I should have", "You shouldn't have" or "I shouldn't have".

So, a really good way to practice this is to write some sentences of your own.

Think of three things that you wish that you had done yesterday.

Say: "I should have gone to the gym."

Or something like that.

"I should have stuck to my diet", or anything like that.

Try to write three sentences about yourself and what you should have done yesterday - the

positive way; and maybe two or three things that you shouldn't have done, let's say, in

the past week, in the past month.

I know you don't make too many mistakes, but just in case, this expression is very handy.

And now, to really master this, what you need to do is this: You should go to our website

at www.engvid.com ; there, you should do a quiz on this subject and look around at the

hundreds of other lessons that we have, and you should definitely subscribe to my YouTube

channel so you can continue to improve your English.

In fact, you should have subscribed long ago.

But, no worries, it's never too late; do it now.

All the best with your English.