5 Expert Ways to Use 'Should' in English [Advanced English Grammar]

Hey, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

This is exactly where you want to be every week to get the confidence you want

for your life and work in English. A few weeks ago,

I shared a lesson on how to use advanced English sentence structures

to talk about your future hopes without using the word hope.

One way to do that is with the sentence starter: I should think that...

If you want to get more about that lesson,

I'll definitely include a link to it below this video in the notes,

but it was incredible to see all the example responses

and comments that you and others in the Confident English community shared.

So today we're going to continue building on your knowledge of how to

expertly use that word should in English.

If you think back to when you first began to study English,

you might remember lessons on modals.

Modals are those words like could, should, might,

would may shall. Do you remember all of those?

Very rarely do lessons spend the appropriate amount of time

to truly understand how we use those words,

all the different ways that we use modals in English.

If you've been following me for a while,

you know that I love to take one specific topic and dive deep so

that you have the know how to confidently use advanced level

vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures. In fact,

I have a similar lesson on five expert ways to use

could in English. And again,

I'll leave a link to that lesson below this video in the notes,

but today we're going to focus on that word should, should,

can be used for giving advice, offering recommendations,

talking about obligations or duty sharing probability and

expectations. And finally,

we can also use should to express regrets or

admonishment.

It's amazing that one little word can be used in so many ways in our

communication. Should,

is definitely a powerful word and an important one to know how to use

well.

And that's exactly what you're going to do today with five expert ways on how to

use should in English. Not only are you going to get clear,

easy to follow examples of how to use should in giving

advice, recommendations, talking about obligations and so on,

but you're also going to learn exactly how to structure your sentences.

So that grammatically everything you say,

whether you're talking about the past present or future is correct

when you're using the word should,

and you can do it with a hundred percent confidence,

All right,

let's get started right away with some common sentences we would use for all of

those communication purposes. Again, giving advice, recommendations,

talking about obligations, expectations, or probability,

and sharing regrets about the past to do that.

I'm going to give you five sentences and I want you to see,

can you identify what that sentence is doing?

Sentence number one, when you're in Washington, DC,

you should definitely visit the National Art Gallery.

What do you think? What am I doing in that sentence? When you're in Washington,

DC,

you should definitely visit the National Art Gallery.

If you're thinking it's a recommendation or even advice,

you're absolutely right.

I'm assuming that sometime in the future,

you might visit Washington DC. And if you do,

my recommendation is you should definitely include the National Art Gallery

on that list. Now, in a moment,

we're going to talk a little bit more about what key words are

telling you that it's a recommendation, but for now,

let's try our second example sentence.

I really should get started with work at 7:00 AM tomorrow morning,

I have so much to do what do you think?

What am I doing in that sentence? Again,

our options are giving a recommendation, giving advice,

talking about obligation or duty expressing

probability or future expectations or sharing regrets about the

past.

What do you think I really should get started with work

at 7:00 AM tomorrow morning, because I have so much to do.

In that sentence, I'm absolutely talking about my obligation,

my duty at work.

It isn't necessarily something I must do or

need to do, but it is important.

It's something that I should prioritize.

So let's pause here for a moment.

What is something that you should really do this week or this month?

Is there some obligation or duty that you have that is important?

Try using the same sentence structure and share an example with me in the

comments below example, sentence number three.

Let's see. It's 3:00 PM.

Their plane should have taken off by now.

What do you think? What am I doing in that sentence? Giving advice,

giving recommendations,

talking about expectations or probability regrets.

If you're thinking the probability or how likely it is that their

plane has taken off. You're exactly right.

This is all about probability or expectations.

Let's go on to number four on weekends. If you can,

you should definitely focus more on spending time with your family and enjoying

your hobbies as opposed to working.

What do you think this one is back to that idea

of giving a recommendation or advice, and finally,

example number five,

he really should have gone to the doctor sooner.

What do you think? What am I expressing in that sentence?

He should have gone to the doctor sooner.

I'm definitely expressing or sharing some regret about something

in the past.

That sentence tells me that he waited too long to go to the doctor.

And as a result,

maybe his symptoms are worse or he suffering more because he

didn't go sooner.

Now that we have these five examples and we've seen how we can use

should to give advice, recommendations, talk about obligations,

probability, and regret.

Let's look more closely at the structure that we use,

whether we want to use should for a past focused sentence present or

future. Now, before we dive in here,

I want to highlight that modals can be used for the present

past and future, but they are irregular.

They don't behave or act like regular verbs,

such as want or complete.

And that's exactly why we're focusing on structure in this lesson.

Let's start with the present. This is a structure that we can use. Typically,

when we want to talk about a present expectation or probability

giving advice and offering recommendations,

we can do this using both positive and negative forms and the structure is

fairly simple.

We use should plus the base form of a verb.

Let's look at some examples to see that structure in action.

They should be home by now.

So we have that structure should be we're using should plus the

base form of the verb. Here's another example. Generally speaking,

everyone should eat more vegetables and fresh fruit. Again,

we're using that present focused structure should eat.

And those words, generally speaking,

indicate that I'm talking about a general truth or giving some kind of

advice. And finally, let's look at an example using the negative form.

She should not leave her job until she has another offer.

Before we move on to focus on the past,

I want you to pause for a moment and try using this structure in one of your own

example sentences.

You can use a sentence that gives advice or a recommendation.

You can talk about a current expectation or probability,

or you could try another example talking about an obligation or duty that you

have.

The key here is following that structure of using should plus the base

form of the verb. After you've got your example,

you can share it with me and the entire Confident English community in the

comments below the video. And now let's take a look at the past.

This one gets a little complicated and here's where we're really going to work

on advanced level grammar and structures.

If we're going to focus on the past,

we use should have plus the past participle

or third form of the verb, that is a lot of jargon.

So let's talk about what I mean by past participle to

do that. Let's think back to earlier in this lesson,

I talked about the regular verbs want and complete,

and I want you to jog your memory.

What that means is to go back far in your memory.

Think back to when you first began learning English,

you probably studied some verb charts and you had charts like want,

wanted, wanted. Complete, completed, completed.

Call called called.

And those are all pretty easy because the second and third form end with

ed, but then we have irregular verbs,

eat ate eaten. Drink, drank drunk.

Do you remember memorizing all those verbs?

This is when that's going to become very helpful.

And the examples that we're going to look at, we're going to use should have,

plus that third form of the verb. For example,

sentence, number one,

he should have gone to the doctor sooner.

I have that should have plus the third form of

go: go, went gone.

He should have gone to the doctor sooner. And if you recall here,

I'm expressing some regret with this example,

we could also use the verbal wait.

He shouldn't have waited so long to go to the doctor.

Let's look at another example.

I know we should have gone to the National Art Gallery when we were in

DC last summer, but we ran out of time.

I'm using those words last summer.

Those are key words that I'm talking about the past it's finished and

I'm some regret about something we didn't do.

Is there anything that you should have done on a past vacation,

but maybe you ran out of time or the weather was bad and you

couldn't do it. If so,

I want you to share your example with me and use this structure should have

plus the third form of the verb in an example sentence below.

Let's look at one more example,

she should have spent more time thinking about the pros

and cons before making her decision. So what do you think happened?

Did she spend the right amount of time thinking about the pros and cons?

What is this sentence saying?

It's definitely expressing some kind of regret or admonishment.

The reality is she didn't spend enough time thinking about the

pros and cons as a result. Maybe she made a bad choice.

She should have spent more time thinking about the

pros and cons. And now let's talk about the future.

Just like with the present we use should plus the base form of the verb.

That means we have to look at other words in the sentence to have a clear

idea, whether we're talking about the future or the present.

So let's look at some examples. Number one,

we should hear from them next week in this sentence,

I have two key words that tell me I'm talking about the future.

Those words are next week.

I could also use something like we should hear from them by tomorrow

in both of those examples,

I'm talking about a future expectation that I have

example, number two, next time you're in DC.

You should go to the National Art Gallery.

Here the key words that give this sentence

a future focus are next time. Next time,

sometime in the future,

when you have the opportunity to visit DC again,

you should visit the National Art Gallery.

I know I'm totally obsessed with the National Art Gallery,

but it really is an amazing museum. All right,

now that you know how to use should to give advice recommendations,

talk about obligations and duty express probability or

expectations and share regret.

Plus you have the correct structures to use. If you haven't yet,

I want you to practice. If you're struggling with examples,

here are three specific things I want you to try to do using should in

English. Number one, give me a recommendation.

Imagine someone is going to visit your home country or your home city.

What should someone definitely make for,

or do if they visit your home country?

The second thing that I want you to do is to share an

expectation. Think about the next year,

what is one expectation that you have?

What is something that should happen next year?

And finally,

the third thing I want you to do with this lesson today is to try sharing some

kind of past regret or admonishment.

Is there something that you or maybe a friend of yours should

have done differently when you were younger .now in

those three examples I'm asking you to use should in the present,

past, and future, just as we talked about in this lesson.

If you found today's Confident English lesson helpful to you,

I would love to know. And you can tell me in three very simple ways.

Number one, give this lesson a thumbs up on YouTube. Number two,

share your comments below the video. And number three,

be sure to subscribe to the Speak Confident English YouTube channel so you never

miss one of my Confident English lessons as always.

Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.