English Grammar - COULD & SHOULD

Hey guys, this is Alex, thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "could" and

"should".

Now, these are two of the most common words in the English language, so if you're wondering

how we use them, what situations we use them, this is the lesson for you.

So, we have an example conversation here.

We have James and Rebecca having a conversation.

Now, James says, "I'm going to the movies."

What is the difference if Rebecca says, "You could walk" versus, "You should walk"?

Hmm.

So, if Rebecca says, "You could walk", she is offering a suggestion, she is offering

a possibility.

If she says, "You should walk", if you have watched past lessons on giving advice in English,

"could" is stronger, it gives definite advice, okay?

So, we use "could" for suggestions, or possibilities, okay?

Suggestions and possibilities.

So, again, you could walk, or you could take the bus, one or the other, okay?

You should gives definite advice.

You should walk gives definite advice.

Okay, now, using "could" and "should", you can talk about future possibility, or advice

for the future.

You can also use it to talk about the past as well, okay?

So, it's like giving hindsight advice.

Those of you who are not familiar with hindsight, I recommend looking it up in the dictionary,

but hindsight, essentially, is looking back at something you did in the past, and thinking

about something you could have done differently, or something you should have done differently.

So, if you are hearing me speak, you heard me say, "You could have done something differently",

or "You should have done something differently", okay?

So, if you've watched the lesson on engVid about the past form of "should", "could" is

the same.

Now, remember, we can say, "You should have studied", right, advisability in the past.

If we say, "You could have studied", it's like, it was a possibility, it was a suggestion,

you know, you could have done that.

So again, depending on which one you want to use, you are either making a suggestion,

or giving one possibility, or you are giving definite advice, strong advice, okay?

So just remember that "should" is much stronger than "could", and they both can be used to

talk about future possibility.

So for example, "What are you doing this weekend?"

"I could visit my parents", okay?

So it's possible that I am going to visit my parents, versus, "I should visit my parents,

I have not seen them in a long time, it's a good idea for me to visit my parents", okay?

So if you want to do a quiz on this lesson, please check out engvid.com, and do the quiz

at the bottom of this lesson.

Thanks again for watching, and take care.