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

Hi, I’m Martin.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn how to use the modal and semi-modal verbs 'should', 'ought

to', 'had better' and 'supposed to'.

We use these verbs to give advice, express opinions, to give warnings or to criticise

someone.

These verbs are similar in meaning, but not exactly the same.

That means you need to understand exactly what each verb means to use them correctly

when you speak.

Let’s start with a basic introduction.

Part one: how to use 'should.'

Let’s look quickly at the different ways you can use 'should' in English.

For this lesson, we’ll use 'should' as our ‘base’ verb.

You’ll learn about the other verbs, like 'supposed to' or 'had better', by comparing

them to 'should'.

This means you need to have a good understanding of 'should.'

First, you can use 'should' to give advice:

"You should buy the green one.

It suits you."

I advise you to do this.

"You shouldn’t go to bed so late.

It’s bad for you."

This is my advice.

You can use 'should' to express your opinion.

"Everyone should see that film.

It’s amazing!"

I’m giving you my opinion about the film.

"The government should raise taxes on the rich."

This is my opinion, what I think should happen.

Obviously, advice and opinion are similar, and often they’re the same thing.

You can also use 'should'—often in the past—to criticise someone else.

"You shouldn’t have said that."

I think you did the wrong thing.

"He should have studied harder for his exams."

I don’t think he studied hard enough.

What connects all of these cases?

In all these uses of 'should', you use 'should' to express what you think is the best thing

to do.

If I say 'you should…', I mean 'I think it’s best if you…'

Now, let’s look at 'ought to.'

Part two: 'should' vs. 'ought to'.

In meaning, 'ought to' is exactly the same as 'should'.

If you can use 'should' in a sentence, you can also use 'ought to'.

For example, you can say:

"You should buy the green one."

Or: "You ought to buy the green one."

You can say:

"Everyone should see that film."

Or: "Everyone ought to see that film."

There’s no difference in meaning.

In both cases, the two sentences with 'should' and 'ought to' have the same meaning.

However, there are a couple of differences in how you use 'ought to'.

First, 'ought to' is more formal, more old-fashioned, and less common in modern spoken English.

That means you probably won’t use 'ought to' unless you are writing, or you want to

sound very formal.

Secondly, 'ought to' has a slightly different form.

Obviously, you need to add 'to'.

Also, the negative form is not generally contracted.

So, you can say:

"You shouldn’t have said that."

With 'should not', you can contract it to 'shouldn’t.'

However, with 'ought to', you need to use the full form.

"You ought not to have said that."

Again, with 'ought to' the sentence sounds very formal, and it’s unlikely that you’d

actually say this.

With 'should', you can make questions, like this:

"What time should I get there?"

With 'ought to', you can technically make questions, but they sound ridiculously formal:

"What time ought I to get there?"

This sounds really old-fashioned and unnatural, so I advise that you don’t use 'ought to'

in this way!

So, to review, 'ought to' has the same meaning as 'should', but a different form.

It’s also more formal and less common.

Let’s look at our next verb.

Part three: how to use 'supposed to.'

'Supposed to' is similar to 'should', but there’s an important difference.

Look at two sentences:

"I should be there at 9:00."

"I’m supposed to be there at 9:00."

Can you see the difference in meaning?

If not, here’s a clue.

Both sentences mean that someone thinks it’s important for you to be there at 9:00.

The important question is: who thinks so?

The first sentence:

"I should be there at 9:00."

…means that you think this is important.

It’s important for you personally to be there at 9:00.

The second sentence:

"I’m supposed to be there at 9:00."

…means that someone else thinks it’s important for you to be there at 9:00.

You might not care, and using 'supposed to' suggests that you probably don’t.

For example, imagine your boss organizes a meeting for 9:00 one morning.

You know the meeting is going to be a waste of time.

People will talk about a load of pointless stuff, and the meeting will go on much longer

than it needs to.

However, your boss thinks it’s important that everyone attends.

So, you might say:

"I’m supposed to go to the meeting at 9:00."

In this case, the meeting is not important to you, but it is important to someone else

(your boss).

This is a good example of when you might use 'supposed to.'

Let’s do one more example.

Imagine we’re at a wedding, and I’m wearing jeans and an old T-shirt.

You say:

"You should have worn something more formal!"

"You were supposed to wear something more formal!"

Can you tell the difference now?

In the first sentence, with 'should', you’re criticising me directly.

You think I look too scruffy, and that I made a mistake by dressing too informally.

In the second sentence, with 'supposed to', you’re suggesting that you don’t personally

care about my appearance, but that other people might expect me to dress more formally.

There’s one more way to use 'supposed to'.

Look at an example:

"I was supposed to finish this essay yesterday."

Can you tell what this means?

It means that you didn’t finish your essay, and you don’t really want to finish your

essay.

This shows you another common way to use 'supposed to': use it to talk about things you don’t

want to do, or things which you aren’t planning to do.

For example:

"I shouldn’t come with you to the cinema.

I’m supposed to be revising."

I’m not revising, and I don’t want to.

In fact, maybe I will come to the cinema!

"I’m supposed to wear a tie, but hardly anyone in the office actually does."

I don’t wear a tie, and I don’t care about wearing one.

To review, 'supposed to' has a similar meaning to 'should', but while 'should' expresses

what you think is the right thing to do, 'supposed to' expresses what other people think is the

right thing to do.

Let’s move on!

Part four: how to use 'had better.'

Again, let’s start with a pair of sentences:

"You should finish everything today."

"You’d better finish everything today."

Can you tell the difference?

Here’s a clue: using 'had better' gives more information than just using 'should'.

What extra information am I communicating if I use 'had better' instead of 'should'?

'Had better' expresses a warning or a threat.

Like 'should', you’re giving advice or expressing your opinion about the right thing to do.

However, with 'had better', you’re also saying that something bad will happen if the

other person doesn’t listen to you.

So, if I say:

"You should finish everything today."

…using 'should' suggests that you have a choice.

I think it’s better if you finish everything today, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

But, if I say:

"You’d better finish everything today."

…I’m suggesting that you don’t really have a choice, because if you don’t do what

I say, something bad will happen.

With 'had better', you can even put the bad consequences into your sentence, like this:

"You’d better finish everything today, or the boss won’t be happy."

Let’s look at some more examples:

"You’d better leave now, or you’ll miss your train."

"He’d better apologise, or I’ll never talk to him again!"

Sometimes, the bad consequence is a kind of threat, like this:

"You’d better be on time, or you could lose your job."

However, it can just be a way to motivate the other person to do what you say:

"You’d better finish everything today, because you won’t have time tomorrow."

But, even if you don’t put the bad consequences into your sentence, the idea is still there.

If I say:

"You’d better be on time."

You would still understand that something bad will happen if you’re not on time, even

though I’m not saying what that bad thing is.

Let’s do a review.

We use the verbs 'should', 'ought to', 'supposed to' and 'had better' to say what you or other

people think is the right thing to do.

That means these verbs express advice, opinion, criticism or (for 'had better'), warnings

or threats.

'Should' and 'ought to' have the same meaning, although 'ought to' is much more formal and

is not commonly used in spoken English.

'Supposed to' refers to what other people think is right, while 'should' expresses what

you think is right.

'Had better' expresses the idea that something bad will happen if you don’t do what I say.

This is why 'had better' can also be used to make threats or give someone a warning.

That’s the end of the lesson.

I hope it was helpful!

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