English Grammar - Past tense of 'should' - "I should have", "You shouldn't have", etc.

Hey guys, this is Alex.

Thanks for clicking and welcome to this lesson on "should" in the past form.

Now some of you might think that we simply add "ed" to the end of "should".

With most verbs we simply add "ed" to show their past form.

However, "should" is a little different.

First you have to understand what "should" actually means.

So in the present, and if you look at past lessons on AngVid, you will see that when

we use "should" we use it as a form of advice, something that is a good idea to do.

So for example, if we say "I should study tonight" it means it is a good idea that I

study tonight because I have a test tomorrow.

Now what if it is the next day after a test?

And on your test you got, hmm, not a very good grade.

So if you failed your test, what should you say in this case?

So we don't say "I shoulded studied".

Say "I should have".

In the past, "I should have studied".

So if you have done some research in the past about "have", you will know that "have"

requires a past participle to complete the sentence correctly.

So we would never say "I should have studied".

Again, it is something in the past, so you always say "I should have studied".

Past participle of "studied" being "studied".

Let's give a few more examples.

So how about "you should", let's see, "you should have".

Now hmm, if you are writing a letter to someone, okay, and you forget to mail the letter, okay,

so the person thinks you did not write the letter to them.

So they might say "you should have done something in the past, wrote the letter in the past".

So in the present, "write" is "write", in the past "write" is "wrote", the past participle

of "write" is "written".

So "you should have written", we'll say "written to me", "you should have written to me".

So again, remember, this is in the past, it would have been a good idea in the past if

you did these things.

Okay, "I should have studied", "you should have written to me", "he should have", let's

say, "called his mother", "he should have called his mother" in the past, okay.

And finally, "we should have", let's say, "listened to the teacher", "it would have

been a good idea", "listened to the teacher", okay.

So again, this is an action that was completed in the past, okay.

That's also something that may or may not have happened.

So if you look at the first one, "I should have studied", you did not study in the past,

but it was a good idea for you to study, okay.

Now when we're talking about the pronunciation of this, in written language, usually in formal

written language, we do not use contractions.

In spoken language, people don't often go "I should have studied", we simply contract

the two words "should" and "have", and we pronounce them "I should've", "should've".

Same with all of these.

"I should've studied", "I should've written", "I should've called", and "we should've listened".

Okay.

And now we're going to talk about how to put this into a negative form.

So we'll be right back in one second.

Whoa, what happened?

Okay, so if we want to change this into a negative statement about something we should

not have done in the past, like you just heard me say, we simply put the word "not" in front

of "have".

So instead of saying "I should have studied", again this is a time in the past that could

have been at any time, I should have studied yesterday, I should have studied last week,

or it can just be an indetermined time in the past, I should have studied, we just say

"not", I should not have studied.

So maybe in this case, the test was easy, so you say "I should not have studied", okay?

Same with this, you should not have written to me, maybe you're not happy with your friend,

you don't want to hear from them, so you tell them "you should not have written to me",

you should not have written your letter, okay?

This one, now this, I want to make a note here that when we are speaking, usually we

don't say "I should not have studied", we simply condense the words again, and we put

"should" and "not" together.

So we say "shouldn't", okay?

So this sentence is "he shouldn't have called his mother", he shouldn't have called his

mother.

Now we go one step further, and we actually almost combine these sounds, instead of saying

"shouldn't have", we say "shouldn't have", okay?

Shouldn't have called his mother, we "shouldn't have listened", instead of "shouldn't have

listened", "shouldn't have listened", okay?

So again, if you say "I should not have studied", people will understand what you mean.

Just understand that when you're listening to people speak these sentences, they might

condense the sentences, okay?

So instead of saying "I should not have studied", people might say "I shouldn't have studied",

or "I shouldn't have studied", okay?

If you want to test your knowledge on "should not", "have", or "should have", again, the

past form of "should", please check out www.engvid.com and do the quiz.

Thanks again for clicking, and take care.