Learn English: SUPPOSED TO

What am I supposed to do without your  love? Oh, hi. James from EngVid and welcome,  

future native speakers. E’s making fun of me,  because he’s saying, what are you supposed to do?  

Because my seeing isn’t that great. But  he’s actually bringing up today’s lesson.  

And what we’re going to learn today  is the modal verb that is used for  

obligation, expectation, and plans: supposed to.  People sometimes confuse supposed to with must,  

and have to. I’ve done a lesson on that. So you  can go check that out on the website at EngVid.  

But today, what we want to work  on specifically is supposed to,  

and how am I going to do that? Well, I’m going to  reduce you to the three most common ways people  

use it and give you examples. Okay. And  then we’re going to do a quiz, of course,  

to test your knowledge on it. Why is it important,  because supposed to is about plans. And we all  

know we make plans, from flying to different  countries to what we’re going to have for dinner.  

So supposed to will help us make sure  you sound more like a native speaker?  

Are you ready? Let’s go to the board. So what are you supposed to do? Supposed to:  

our first meaning we look at is to talk about  expectations, what you think should happen.  

So if you went to a store, and you saw this,  you said “$20? It’s supposed to be on sale.”  

My expectation was it should be $15. But it’s  not 15, it’s 20. That’s more than I expected.  

And that’s where the expectations come in.  It’s an idea that you’ve had in your head,  

about a way a thing should be alright, if you’re  going on a date, and you go out of, I’m going on a  

date to meet a woman, I come out, I’ve seen her on  Tinder or whatever. And I look at her Whoa, you’re  

supposed to be smaller. Maybe she’s 20 feet tall.  I’m like, I expected you this tall, not basketball  

height. Who knows, you never know. Okay, so my  example is: “supposed to be on sale”, you thought  

it would be one price, but it’s another price. Now we talk about obligations. An obligation  

is similar to an expectation, but they are  different. An obligation is similar to more like  

must, something that you should do, because  you have this job or duty. And because  

of that you have certain expectations.  Most of us know that if you have a job,  

and you’re supposed to be there at 9am, that is an  obligation. It’s not merely an expectation like,  

well, we kind of expected it to be, but it  could change. That’s your job. And if that’s  

difficult to understand, I want you to think about  going to a store. Imagine going to the bank, the  

bank is supposed to be open at 9am. And the bank  opens at 10 o’clock, the guy just walks up like,  

hey, just slept in, you’re going to be angry,  right? Because it’s not an expectation, not just,  

it’s stronger than that. So you’re having you have  an obligation to be here on time, look at all of  

these people lining up, we’ve been waiting for  you. In this case, you might say, or you would  

say “you’re supposed to be here at this time”.  It’s not just expectation, it’s more of a duty.  

Okay, so it’s stronger than the expectation. But  it still comes from the family of expectation,  

right? So “you were supposed to pay your taxes  on time”, in this case, supposed to take on the  

idea of must, is, you could say must. But once  again, remember, this lesson is about teaching you  

how we more casually use our English. And that’s  why this lesson goes from a beginner lesson to an  

intermediate, because you’ve got more of an  understanding to use it more appropriately.  

“You’re supposed to be on time Johnson”:  you can say you must be on time,  

that clearly, they weren’t on time. So you  say you’re supposed to because that’s part  

of your obligation. Cool. So we notice how  expectation is going morphing or changing into  

an obligation, something stronger. Now number three, we say to say I have  

heard or people believe something to be true.  And you kind of going What do you mean I have  

heard or that’s a confusing sentence? Well, I  have heard means people have told me right? I  

heard you I heard a sound. People have told me so  I have heard this is true. We can also say it’s a  

different way of saying people believe so they  tell other people. For instance, I have heard  

that Paris is a romantic city. Or you can say what  what is it? “Paris is supposed to be a romantic  

city.” See? And then once again, it goes back to  that expectation thing we were talking about at  

the beginning. Because people have said it, you  expect it. It’s not an obligation for Paris to be  

romantic. It is not the city of love just because  you think it is... no, it is your expectation not  

our obligation. Yes. My best French accent. Okay,  so it’s something that people believe to be true,  

but it doesn’t have to be. But people talk  about it. So you expect it or you believe it,  

okay? Because you’ve heard it or people believe  it. So these are the three most common uses I  

discussed at the beginning things that people use  supposed to for. And this is how you’re supposed,  

oh, I’m about to say you’re supposed to  use it expected to use it. Right? Okay.  

So, what is this supposed to? How do we write  it just because I said it and you’re like, Okay,  

I get it. What is the form? So let’s discuss  the form and the pronunciation of it. Okay,  

I’m going to teach you how to put it how to  pronounce it, we’ll get the proper pronunciation  

because there are two. But let’s go to the board  and look at the form. In red I have verb “to be”,  

“supposed”. And then I got to verb base. If you  don’t know what that is, that is the infinitive  

form. When you have the preposition to, before  a verb in the base is, especially with a modal  

verb in front of it, it is the infinitive  form. So we have the verb to be supposed,  

and has to have a D. And I’ll explain why in a  second or two. And then the infinitive form of  

the next verb. I’m supposed to meet my friend for  dinner, you were supposed to be here an hour ago,  

you’re supposed to go home. That is the  form. Now, when we say in the present,  

or future, we can use this and we will use  a probe the verb to be in its appropriate  

form for the pronoun. So if the pronoun is  I, then it’s “am”. If it’s he she it? “Is”.  

They, we, an “are”. All right, so that’s  are so we are supposed to see my friend,  

I am supposed to see my friend, she is supposed  to see your friend. Right? If it’s the future, you  

use the same form. And you say, I am supposed to  see my friend tonight. That’s in the future. Easy  

enough, right? And it’s that expectation, or yeah,  in this case expectation for this sentence.  

Now when what happens if you want to say something  negative? Well, we’re going to have to put a  

negative form in it. And that form is going to  take the form of ‘not’, which I didn’t write.  

I didn’t want it too confusing, but we’ll put it  here: not. And we put the not with the verb to be.  

So we don’t put it with the verb at the base,  we put it with the verb to be so we change it.  

So the test, it wasn’t supposed to be hard, hard.  We change was Remember, we said it was okay. And  

this is actually negative and past. So I’ve done  a whammy on you. So before I do that, why don’t  

we go here? They’ll come back to there. Okay?  So don’t look here for a second. Let’s go here.  

Let’s do, we did future and present, let’s do  the past form. We take the verb to be and there  

you go. It’s in the past. So I was he was she  was they were we were okay, you just put that  

form. And that’s the past. This is very specific.  And I want to take a second to you to explain.  

The past form is a little different than the  present form. Present Future means planning ahead.  

Past form is used to mean, something has  changed. What? I was supposed to meet my friend  

at the mall, it means I probably didn’t meet my  friend at the mall. That was the plan. But it has  

changed. So when someone says to you in that this  moment, you’re standing here and they’re standing  

here. I’m supposed to go home tonight means that  was the plan. That may change or may have changed.  

Cool? All right. So look out for “was” because  something’s changing. And you have to be aware  

of it. Right? He was supposed to be the best  guy, the best guy for president. Things change.  

Alright, so in this case, I have I was supposed  to be home by now. Am I home? Probably not.  

That’s what the was for. There was a plan  for me to be home. But clearly I’m not.  

Now I’m going to go back to the other form. And I  apologize greatly for doing that to you. Because  

I really liked the lesson. It was a good one up  until here. But I wanted to show the negative  

form because sometimes things change, right? So in  this case, something’s changed, but it’s negative.  

You could say... here’s an example. It was  supposed to be it’s supposed to be a nice  

day today. Sunny, great weather. Right? Or you  could say it wasn’t supposed to rain. What? Well,  

Sunny is good weather. Rain is bad weather. I  could make that negative change by adding “not”.  

It wasn’t supposed to rain. Right? It is supposed  to be a nice day with a sentence on the board.  

It wasn’t supposed to be hard, right? It is  supposed to be easy. Flipping it by changing  

the end of that verb. So what I want to say is  we’ve gone over three. Yes, sir. We have... oh,  

I almost jumped ahead of myself. I promise you  the pronunciation. And you’re gonna say what’s,  

what’s the big deal. That’s what  this crazy thing down here is.  

We actually don’t usually say “supposed to”. And  that’s why many students spell it incorrectly  

and they drop off the D because they always hear  “suppose” when you’re speaking quickly, we usually  

drop the U sound. And we also drop the D sound. So  it comes out to sppose to, I’m sppose to do this,  

you’re sppose to do this, we’re sppose to go.  Now, when someone wants to get your attention,  

they’ll say, you were supposed to be at work on  time. Don’t play around, they’re not playing with  

you. They took the time to say all the sounds.  So fast speech, you’ll notice the U and the D  

gets done, or dropped. Cool. So we’ve gone over the three  

definitions, some people break it into  four, I think three is sufficient.  

We’ve gone over to the present and future form.  Alright, we’ve gone over the past form. And we’ve  

even shown you the negative form. And I went one  step further negative, the negative post form.  

But it’s not a lesson if we don’t do our quiz  and have a bonus feature homework, is it?  

So I’d like you to stay with me. And after  you know, we’re supposed to do something  

a little different, or we’re supposed to do  the test. I want you to do it with me now.  

And we’re back. So we were supposed to  do our quiz, which we’ll do now. Do you  

remember the three meanings for “supposed  to”? Obligation, expectation, and belief.  

And that is part of what’s going to happen  to the quiz here as we have three boxes,  

and you’re going to try and fill out what  should go there. Which one? Which part of  

supposed to we’re talking about in the meaning. Now, I’m over here. Let’s start here. Mr. E says,  

You must not smoke in here. And James says okay,  cuz I love a good stogie. Stogie is like cigar  

people will talk with so on to talk about the  stogie with these lousy stogies. All right. So:  

“You must not smoke in here.”  You have two jobs to do.  

What is it that James is there to do? And is  it obligation, expectation, or belief? Okay.  

That’s right. “James isn’t supposed to  smoke in here.” We have not being the  

negative part of the sentence. We know what’s  supposed to means right? And we’ll be sorry.  

James isn’t supposed to smoke in here. And what  is this? Is it obligation, belief, or expectation?  

Well, if you remember rightly, I put must  when we were talking about obligation.  

It’s not just expectation, I expect  you not to -- you’re not supposed to.  

And we know must, like have to, is necessity,  right? So in this case, obligation. You’re not  

supposed to. It’s like a rule, or law. What about this one, two? “Many people  

believe that Oxford is the best university in the  world.” How would you write that? Sorry, I was  

just going to put this here before I forget. How  would you write that? Alright, so it is Oxford.  

“Oxford is supposed to be the best university  in the world.” Now, I tried to help you here  

by saying something and if you can pick  it out, you’ll know if this is obligation,  

belief, or expectation. What word should help  you here? That’s correct. “Believe.” So this is a  

belief that people hold. Of course, if you’re from  Harvard, you probably want to argue with that one,  

but let’s just say Oxford for now. Okay. Now, can  I do this? Just as a quick question to see if you  

remember the grammar and how it’s supposed to  be structured. Can I put supposed to like that?  

No. Now what we said was people may say it  like that very quickly. It’s s’ppose to be,  

but you do not write it like that, you need the  D. Okay? Just like we don’t add an ing or an S  

here. When we say supposed to, it’s in the passive  voice. So we use the verb to be supposed to be,  

and then sorry, supposed to, with the infinitive.  Good. I’m glad you remember the grammar.  

And I’m glad you remember what the meanings  are. So we’re going back over that.  

Now for the final one. You should get it because  there’s only one left. But this is a tough one.  

My girlfriend shouldn’t be here. She should be  at work at this time. Maybe somebody is up to  

something bad, naughty person. You’re not supposed  to be doing that. But what sentence would you  

write? And what part of the meaning of supposed  to are we looking at? Alright, so let’s do it.  

That’s a long sentence.  

It’s a long sentence. We get the point. And I’m  going to fill this in. Because I already know  

you should know this one already. Right?  You should know this one. Oh, you know what?  

I put the S too close so I should do this.  She’s, she’s supposed to. Okay. She’s supposed  

to be at work. But what is it? It’s going to  be... expectation. And for those of you who  

are confused, why is this expectation not  obligation? Because she’s at work? Well,  

I think it has nothing to do with her work. I am  not her boss talking. Maybe I’m her boyfriend. And  

I expect her to be at work at 12 o’clock, except  she’s home. But what am I doing that I’m afraid...  

to be continued. Alright, so we’re  looking at it, and I’ve used it twice.  

My girlfriend isn’t supposed to be here. Now we  know that is a negative use, we use the negative,  

right? And she’s supposed to be at work  at this time. So we use the positive,  

both are in the positive or sorry, in the present  form. Right. So we talked about a change in plans.  

Remember, we talked about that. So there was a  change in the plan. She’s supposed to be at work.  

And she’s not supposed to be here, now. My  expectation. So we’ve covered all the things  

we talked about, we have three examples  of obligation, or sorry, one example each  

of obligation, belief, and expectation. And now I would like to give you a couple  

other things. Well, some phrases you can use  with supposed to that will help to round out  

your English. Because as I said, why we’re  learning this is because it’s about planning.  

And in this case, you can see there’s a change in  the plan. And a lot of people say this, instead of  

“have to” or “must”, like I have to go to work I’m  supposed to go to work is more common. So I would  

like to give you a couple of phrases -- three to  be exact, that can help to fill out your use of  

“supposed to”. So you can use this modal verb like  you’re supposed to. Oh, yeah, I like it, too.  

So let’s move to the bonus section of  the video. And I’m going to explain  

other uses of supposed to, that are  used commonly when we talk about  

our duties. We could talk about frustration,  and the purpose of something. Okay, so:  

“What am I supposed to do?” Notice  this question in frustration.  

It’s... there was... okay. A perfect example  was there was a guy I know, named Matt,  

and was a pretty decent guy because he  would help out with the photocopier.  

And he could have said it like this, like, “What  am I supposed to do?” but he didn’t use to do  

that. And I’ll explain because his classroom was  right by our photocopier. And it would break down  

a lot. And a lot of the times the teachers would  be complaining and this and that making noise,  

and Matt would come out and help fix it. Now he  could have said it because it happened regularly,  

like “what am I supposed to do? Do I look like the  Xerox guy?” but he didn’t do that, he would just  

help them. But a lot of times people would use  frustration if it’s a questioning frustration. If  

someone is asking them and saying this photocopier  doesn’t work, and then just another teacher.  

“Well, what am I supposed to do? It’s not my  job.” And that’s that frustration. As much as it  

seems like a question, it’s a frustration that  it’s not my responsibility or obligation to do  

something. Matt, hope you’re doing well, because  you helped us a lot with that photocopier.  

Now, we can ask the same question, What am I  supposed to do, but we can use it in line of duty?  

What’s your job or responsibility? So you come in  and they go, okay... “Daniel’s going to be doing  

this, Josh will be doing this.” And I go and go:  “So what am I supposed to do?” What is my job in  

all of this? In this case? It’s not frustration.  It’s what do you expect of me? Or what would you  

like me to do? So what am I supposed to  do? Sit over there. Okay. Cool, right?  

Next we can say it is what does something do?  But we would say, what is this supposed to do?  

So you get rid of this. You go, what is it  supposed to do? What is this supposed to do?  

You could turn around and I’m looking  around at this. Oh, interesting.  

What is this supposed to do? Notice I said  “s’ppose” to remember I said we dropped the U  

and the D, I use that what is this supposed to do?  Meaning what is its function? What is its purpose?  

Tell the weather, tell the time? I don’t know.  You tell me what is it supposed to do? Cool.  

So now I’ve given you the three meanings of  supposed to in verb. I’ve given you three  

different ways you can use it in conversation  to... I want to say elicit and elicit means  

get more information from someone or something.  As in frustration, you can let people know you’re  

frustrated when something’s not your  obligation. Right? What am I supposed to  

do about it? Do I look like I’m the prime minister  or president, prime minister, president, Canada?  

President of the United States or the prime  minister of Canada? Oh, wow. Too much TV.  

What do you expect of me, so what am I supposed  to do, help with the guys over there? Would  

you like me to work over there? So you’re  asking me, what is my duty in this situation?  

And then we can say, what is the purpose of  something? What is it supposed to do? Is it  

supposed to be an air conditioner? Is it  supposed to be a computer? What is it?  

Now, I’ve given you your test?  I think you did rather well,  

remembering what the three  meanings of supposed to are,  

and how we can use it. I’ve given you some  bonus material. And as always, you have  

some homework. So what does Mr. E want you to do?  Well, it says fill in what is supposed to be done.  

And I want you to fill this in underneath...  in the comment section, either here, or in  

EngVid or wherever you’re watching this particular  video. Okay, the first one is Mr. E says you were  

supposed to like this video. Give it a thumbs  up. And you say okay, now I want you to do it.  

I know tricky, huh? Alright. But now you know  how it works, it’s good. The second thing is Mr.  

E says Mr. E says you are supposed to write out  three sentences with “supposed to”. And I would  

like to add, I would like you to try to use at  least the meaning or the intention, of obligation,  

of belief, or expectation and try and show that  you know the difference. Cool. All right.  

Well, I want to say before I go, I’ve got a  quote for you. And because this lesson was about  

supposed to and obligation, here’s a quote, you  might like: “You were born with three obligations,  

and only three. That is to live, to love, and to  be happy.” And before I take off, I’d like to say  

please go visit EngVid. And that’s www. eng as in  English, vid as in video .com. And before you go,  

I’m sure you’ve already hit that like button,  or I hope you have because you stayed this long,  

right? It means you must like the video, you’re  at the end, hit the subscribe button. And there’s  

a little bell there. If you hit that, that’s  for notification, which means when you hit  

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I’m supposed to get going right now and I hope  you you were supposed to learn something from  

this lesson. You have a great one and as I  say, future native speakers: see you soon.