Name: English Modals: 4 ways to use "SHOULD"
Uploaded: 2018-05-19T13:57:50.000Z
Duration: 12 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Modal verbs - A2

So come on and let me know:
Should I stay or should I go?

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this
lesson on "4 Ways to Use 'Should'".

Now, you are probably familiar with at least
two of these ways if you have been studying

So the most common ways are the first two up
here, and then we're going to look at two

other ways that might be a
little less familiar to you.

So, let's start with the first, the very first way
that every student learns how to use "should"

when they're studying English, which
is for present or future advice.

Now, the structure for this is "should" or "should
not" if you're making a negative sentence,

So you have your subject: "I", "you", "he",
"she", "it", "we", "they", "Mark", "Paul",

"my mom", "your mom", whatever,
plus this structure.

So let's look at some examples
of present or future advice.

So you're giving the advice to your friend
who maybe had a fight with, you know, their

boyfriend or their husband or just a friend,
and you think they should call him.

Now, here you're kind of giving your opinion
about another couple's relationship, and you're

giving your advice to a friend about their
situation, if that's not too confusing, I

My advice is they
shouldn't argue so much.

And third example for you
guys: "He should apologize."

If you, you know, want to be a good friend
to your girlfriend or your boyfriend, and

you want to give them, you know, support and tell
them that their boyfriend needs to apologize,

you're giving him advice
even though he's not here.

It's a good idea for him to apologize
to you because he made a mistake.

Before we continue, I just want you guys to
repeat these sentences after me so that, you

know, we can practice the pronunciation and
you're using the language that you're hearing

So, repeat after me: "You should call him.",
"They shouldn't argue so much.", "He should

All right, let's move on to the
second way we use "should".

Now, here you can use it for past
advice or to show past regrets.

So, the structure for this, just like up here,
you have "should" or "should not" if it's

"Should not have" plus the past
participle of your main verb.

So, let's look at some examples
so this is easy to see.

So you are showing personal regret for something
you did in the past, and you feel bad because

you really should have made a different decision,
so you say: "I shouldn't have done that."

Now, notice here, you know,
I put the contraction.

I want to give you practical skills,
practical language that you can use.

I could say: "He should not have done that", and
be very formal, but really when most people

speak, they speak in contractions, so you and
I will speak in contractions in this video,

too; like a pregnant
woman, contractions.

Now, again, you're talking to a friend and
maybe they made a decision and you feel they

made the decision without asking you your
opinion or if the decision was okay.

So maybe your friend, I don't know, like,
grabbed your phone and used it to call long

distance somewhere, and your phone plan is,
you know, almost up, your data is all used

up, maybe they're, I don't know,
watching a YouTube video.

If they're watching engVid, let them
watch, like, all they want, it's cool.

But if they're watching something else, you
know, you say: "Oh, you should've asked me

This is, again,
contraction: "should have".

So before we continue, let's repeat
these sentences one more time.

So repeat after me: "I shouldn't have done
that.", "You should've asked me first."

Okay, so that's for past
advice or past regrets.

And here, again, if you're using
"I", usually it's for regret.

"I should have done something", "I
shouldn't have done something".

So, if you expect something to happen or expect
something to have happened in the past, you

Now, this can be used for present
expectation, future expectation.

And for present and future, the
structure is exactly the same as here.

And for past expectation, the structure
is exactly the same as you see here.

So, for example: "He
should be here by now."

So you expect him to be
at your location now.

My expectation is he
should be here by now.

So, if your friend is telling you, you know:
"Hey, Martha didn't come to the meeting.

I saw her leave the house
at, like, 6 o'clock.

My expectation is that I expected her
to be at the meeting at 7 o'clock.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

English Modals: 4 ways to use "SHOULD"

pronunciation

context

present

situation