Name: Should vs Ought to, English modal verbs
Uploaded: 2021-09-08T08:05:47.000Z
Duration: 7 min 33 s
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Hey! What's up! Welcome to English Mania! My name is Antonia Romaker

Future simple

and today we'll compare should and ought to. First of all, grammatically speaking we need to understand

Modal verbs - A2

What does it mean? it means that we use it without the particle to when there's a verb after it.

So we say: We should go home now. It's really late.

Should go, we don't say should to go, like in the sentence: I want to go home.

In addition should doesn't have any other tense forms.

There's just one form should and that's it.

And finally when we create a question or a negative sentence we do not need any auxiliary verbs.

So we use should as an auxiliary verb and therefore we have: Should we go home now or stay?

I think we shouldn't get into his hair. No auxiliary verbs necessary.

So should is a modal verb, while ought to is a semi-modal verb.

On the one hand, you need to use the particle two after it. We ought to go home now.

But on the other hand, we do not need any auxiliary verbs.

Ought we to go home now? And moreover, we do not need the ending s in Present Simple.

She ought to help him. The same goes for should. She should help him.

We can often use either should or ought to to talk about obligations and recommendations.

Your boss might say to you: You should finish your work before you go home.

Or: You ought to finish your work before you go home.

There is a tiny difference here, however. When you use the verb should you presuppose that it is your opinion.

You think so. The speaker thinks like that.

But when you use ought to, it is more neutral and you talk about some general obligation.

The circumstances make us do something. We also use should and ought to to talk about probability.

But here ought to is not that common.   Hmm... she should be ready by now.

I mean I think she's ready but I'm not sure.

Let's take a look at several examples with the semi-modal verb ought to.

Phew! We ought to do more exercise. You oughtn't to speak to your father like this.

Notice we don't use the axillary verb, we don't say 'you don't ought to'.

You oughtn't to speak to your father like that. Ought she to call the police?

However, I need to point out that ought is mostly used in statements.

It's not that common in questions and negative sentences.

Better use should in questions and negative sentences.

Ought to is a little bit more formal and it's not usually used a lot in writing.

We also prefer should when we deal with some recommendations from outside authorities.

The sign says you should kill the motor before you fill up the tank.

In addition when we give some advice using the pronoun I,

better use should or would. I should leave early tomorrow if I were you.

I would leave early tomorrow if I were you. It's a very important interview.

We use the construction should or ought to plus a perfect infinitive

to talk about the past. What is the perfect infinitive?

Here we use the axillary verb have plus the past participle of the full verb.

Should have done something or ought to have done something.

So we use this construction to talk about something

that didn't happen in the past and we are sorry that it didn't.

Everyone knows that this is a very busy restaurant we should have made a reservation.

We ought to have made a reservation. Here there is an additional meaning

of regret and a bit of criticism. You should have come, she was so angry, that you didn't.

You ought to have come, or we can use a negative form.

You shouldn't have come, she was so angry. She is always angry it doesn't matter what you do.

And one more use here, when somebody gives you a gift you can say: Oh, you shouldn't have! Thank you!

Like you shouldn't have bought it, you shouldn't have bothered to buy me a gift.

So it's a set expression which people say but they don't actually mean it.

We also use this construction to talk about an expectation

that something happened, has happened or will happen.

If the flight was on time he should have arrived in London early this morning.

Or he ought to have arrived in London early this morning. Also possible.

Okay, that's it for today, I hope that now you do not confuse should and ought to.

You will avoid making common mistakes with these words.

And if you have any questions as usual write a comment, I will try to answer as soon as possible.

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Should vs Ought to, English modal verbs

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