How to Use Should, Ought to, Supposed to and Had Better - English Modal Verbs Lesson

393,895 views ・ 2017-02-09

Oxford Online English


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Hi, I’m Martin.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English!
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In this lesson, you can learn how to use the modal and semi-modal verbs 'should', 'ought
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to', 'had better' and 'supposed to'.
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We use these verbs to give advice, express opinions, to give warnings or to criticise
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someone.
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These verbs are similar in meaning, but not exactly the same.
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That means you need to understand exactly what each verb means to use them correctly
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when you speak.
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Let’s start with a basic introduction.
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Part one: how to use 'should.'
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Let’s look quickly at the different ways you can use 'should' in English.
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For this lesson, we’ll use 'should' as our ‘base’ verb.
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You’ll learn about the other verbs, like 'supposed to' or 'had better', by comparing
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them to 'should'.
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This means you need to have a good understanding of 'should.'
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First, you can use 'should' to give advice:
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"You should buy the green one.
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It suits you."
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I advise you to do this.
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"You shouldn’t go to bed so late.
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It’s bad for you."
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This is my advice.
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You can use 'should' to express your opinion.
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"Everyone should see that film.
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It’s amazing!"
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I’m giving you my opinion about the film.
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"The government should raise taxes on the rich."
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This is my opinion, what I think should happen.
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Obviously, advice and opinion are similar, and often they’re the same thing.
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You can also use 'should'—often in the past—to criticise someone else.
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"You shouldn’t have said that."
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I think you did the wrong thing.
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"He should have studied harder for his exams."
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I don’t think he studied hard enough.
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What connects all of these cases?
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In all these uses of 'should', you use 'should' to express what you think is the best thing
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to do.
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If I say 'you should…', I mean 'I think it’s best if you…'
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Now, let’s look at 'ought to.'
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Part two: 'should' vs. 'ought to'.
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In meaning, 'ought to' is exactly the same as 'should'.
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If you can use 'should' in a sentence, you can also use 'ought to'.
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For example, you can say:
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"You should buy the green one."
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Or: "You ought to buy the green one."
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You can say:
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"Everyone should see that film."
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Or: "Everyone ought to see that film."
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There’s no difference in meaning.
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In both cases, the two sentences with 'should' and 'ought to' have the same meaning.
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However, there are a couple of differences in how you use 'ought to'.
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First, 'ought to' is more formal, more old-fashioned, and less common in modern spoken English.
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That means you probably won’t use 'ought to' unless you are writing, or you want to
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sound very formal.
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Secondly, 'ought to' has a slightly different form.
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Obviously, you need to add 'to'.
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Also, the negative form is not generally contracted.
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So, you can say:
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"You shouldn’t have said that."
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With 'should not', you can contract it to 'shouldn’t.'
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However, with 'ought to', you need to use the full form.
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"You ought not to have said that."
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Again, with 'ought to' the sentence sounds very formal, and it’s unlikely that you’d
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actually say this.
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With 'should', you can make questions, like this:
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"What time should I get there?"
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With 'ought to', you can technically make questions, but they sound ridiculously formal:
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"What time ought I to get there?"
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This sounds really old-fashioned and unnatural, so I advise that you don’t use 'ought to'
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in this way!
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So, to review, 'ought to' has the same meaning as 'should', but a different form.
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It’s also more formal and less common.
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Let’s look at our next verb.
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Part three: how to use 'supposed to.'
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'Supposed to' is similar to 'should', but there’s an important difference.
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Look at two sentences:
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"I should be there at 9:00."
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"I’m supposed to be there at 9:00."
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Can you see the difference in meaning?
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If not, here’s a clue.
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Both sentences mean that someone thinks it’s important for you to be there at 9:00.
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The important question is: who thinks so?
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The first sentence:
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"I should be there at 9:00."
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…means that you think this is important.
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It’s important for you personally to be there at 9:00.
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The second sentence:
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"I’m supposed to be there at 9:00."
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…means that someone else thinks it’s important for you to be there at 9:00.
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You might not care, and using 'supposed to' suggests that you probably don’t.
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For example, imagine your boss organizes a meeting for 9:00 one morning.
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You know the meeting is going to be a waste of time.
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People will talk about a load of pointless stuff, and the meeting will go on much longer
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than it needs to.
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However, your boss thinks it’s important that everyone attends.
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So, you might say:
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"I’m supposed to go to the meeting at 9:00."
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In this case, the meeting is not important to you, but it is important to someone else
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(your boss).
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This is a good example of when you might use 'supposed to.'
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Let’s do one more example.
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Imagine we’re at a wedding, and I’m wearing jeans and an old T-shirt.
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You say:
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"You should have worn something more formal!"
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"You were supposed to wear something more formal!"
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Can you tell the difference now?
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In the first sentence, with 'should', you’re criticising me directly.
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You think I look too scruffy, and that I made a mistake by dressing too informally.
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In the second sentence, with 'supposed to', you’re suggesting that you don’t personally
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care about my appearance, but that other people might expect me to dress more formally.
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There’s one more way to use 'supposed to'.
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Look at an example:
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"I was supposed to finish this essay yesterday."
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Can you tell what this means?
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It means that you didn’t finish your essay, and you don’t really want to finish your
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essay.
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This shows you another common way to use 'supposed to': use it to talk about things you don’t
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want to do, or things which you aren’t planning to do.
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For example:
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"I shouldn’t come with you to the cinema.
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I’m supposed to be revising."
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I’m not revising, and I don’t want to.
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In fact, maybe I will come to the cinema!
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"I’m supposed to wear a tie, but hardly anyone in the office actually does."
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I don’t wear a tie, and I don’t care about wearing one.
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To review, 'supposed to' has a similar meaning to 'should', but while 'should' expresses
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what you think is the right thing to do, 'supposed to' expresses what other people think is the
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right thing to do.
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Let’s move on!
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Part four: how to use 'had better.'
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Again, let’s start with a pair of sentences:
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"You should finish everything today."
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"You’d better finish everything today."
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Can you tell the difference?
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Here’s a clue: using 'had better' gives more information than just using 'should'.
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What extra information am I communicating if I use 'had better' instead of 'should'?
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'Had better' expresses a warning or a threat.
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Like 'should', you’re giving advice or expressing your opinion about the right thing to do.
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However, with 'had better', you’re also saying that something bad will happen if the
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other person doesn’t listen to you.
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So, if I say:
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"You should finish everything today."
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…using 'should' suggests that you have a choice.
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I think it’s better if you finish everything today, but I don’t think it’s necessary.
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But, if I say:
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"You’d better finish everything today."
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…I’m suggesting that you don’t really have a choice, because if you don’t do what
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I say, something bad will happen.
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With 'had better', you can even put the bad consequences into your sentence, like this:
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"You’d better finish everything today, or the boss won’t be happy."
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Let’s look at some more examples:
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"You’d better leave now, or you’ll miss your train."
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"He’d better apologise, or I’ll never talk to him again!"
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Sometimes, the bad consequence is a kind of threat, like this:
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"You’d better be on time, or you could lose your job."
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However, it can just be a way to motivate the other person to do what you say:
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"You’d better finish everything today, because you won’t have time tomorrow."
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But, even if you don’t put the bad consequences into your sentence, the idea is still there.
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If I say:
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"You’d better be on time."
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You would still understand that something bad will happen if you’re not on time, even
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though I’m not saying what that bad thing is.
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Let’s do a review.
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We use the verbs 'should', 'ought to', 'supposed to' and 'had better' to say what you or other
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people think is the right thing to do.
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That means these verbs express advice, opinion, criticism or (for 'had better'), warnings
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or threats.
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'Should' and 'ought to' have the same meaning, although 'ought to' is much more formal and
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is not commonly used in spoken English.
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'Supposed to' refers to what other people think is right, while 'should' expresses what
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you think is right.
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'Had better' expresses the idea that something bad will happen if you don’t do what I say.
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This is why 'had better' can also be used to make threats or give someone a warning.
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That’s the end of the lesson.
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I hope it was helpful!
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Want more practice with this topic?
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Check out the full version of the lesson on our website: Oxford Online English dot com.
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Thanks for watching.
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See you next time!
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