LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: FINALLY UNDERSTAND PAST MODALS - SHOULD, COULD, WOULD HAVE (SUBTITLES)

- [Jack] Should have, could have, would have.

Today we're going to talk about modal verbs for the past,

and you're also going to learn

how to use these as reductions.

So for example, shoulda, coulda, woulda,

or should've, could've, would've.

And I'm gonna give you lots of examples

so that you can finally understand exactly

how to use these advanced modal verbs,

to use should, would, and could to talk about the past.

Hello, my name is Jack from tofluency.com,

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Before we talk about how to use,

should have, could have, and would have,

let's just very quickly talk about should, could, and would.

And my friend Shayna at espressoenglish.net

tell us about this in a very succinct way.

A way that helps you understand it clearly,

and I'll leave a link to her lesson in the description too.

But she says, "Should is use for recommendation and advice,"

and these are general rules here.

For example, if you want to lose weight,

you should eat healthy food.

Could is used for possibilities.

For example you can say,

"Oh, we could go away this weekend, right?"

We could go away this weekend,

it's a possibility, something that you could do.

And would is for imagining results,

"If I were rich, I would buy a boat."

If I were rich, I would buy a boat.

And this is a quick question,

if you were rich what would be

the first thing you would buy?

So again, the general rule is,

should is for recommendations or advice,

could is for possibilities,

and would is for imagining results.

Again, I'll leave a link to this lesson in the description.

The good news is when we use should have, could have,

and would have that same general rule applies.

So, what we're doing here is we're talking

about imaginary situations in the past.

We're talking about things in the past

by using should have, could have, and would have.

So that's the first thing to know,

we use should have, could have, and would have for the past.

This is fun because this is where you can play around

with the language a little bit.

And also just talk about how things would have,

how things would have been different

in the past if something else happened?

It's really good fun to talk about this.

But should have as well,

we can use it to talk about regrets,

we can use it to talk about

what the best advice should have been in the past.

And most people think would have

is only used in the third conditional,

but we don't have to use it for the third conditional.

So let's start with should have.

I like should have, people use this a lot,

and we mainly talk about this

to give advice for past events,

so to give advice for past events.

So, before I said should is mainly used

for recommendations or advice,

should have is used for recommendations

or advice in the past.

And a lot of the time we use this like I said before,

when talking about regrets.

So imagine, let's start with an example.

Imagine that my friend is running

a big race tomorrow morning,

so she has a big running race tomorrow morning.

She's running a marathon,

and as a friend I want to give her some advice.

She probably already knows this but I say,

"You should go to bed early tonight."

You should go to bed early tonight,

so this is advice right now,

however I see her in the morning,

she looks exhausted, she looks so tired.

And I asked her, "You look tired, what did you do?"

And she says, "Ugh, I stayed up late

watching that new Netflix series."

And I say to her,

"Well, you should have come to bed earlier,

you shouldn't have watched TV so late."

You should have gone to bed earlier,

you shouldn't have watched TV so late.

So in this case, I am giving her advice for the past.

I am saying what she should have done,

recommendations or advice for the past.

And in this case it's gone, you can't change the past.

It's a little bit unique in a way,

and I'm sure have something similar

in your own language too.

But when you say you should go to bed early,

you're given advice for now or the future.

But if you say you should have gone to bed earlier,

you're giving advice for the past.

You can give yourself advice too.

For example, let's say you go

to a Thanksgiving party and you think,

"Okay, I'm not going to eat so much today,

I'm gonna take it easy,

I'm just gonna eat a little bit of turkey and that's it."

But you sit down, you start eating,

it's delicious so you get more, you get a second plate.

You fill your plate with turkey, and potatoes,

and vegetables and then you get a third plate,

more turkey, more potatoes, more vegetables.

Your stomach starts to hurt, you feel tired,

you don't wanna do anything, you just want to go to bed.

You can say, "Ugh, I shouldn't have eaten so much."

I shouldn't have eaten so much.

Another example is,

imagine that you are talking with a friend,

you have a disagreement and you say something really nasty.

So instead of just talking about things naturally,

you say something really nasty and you insult your friend.

The next day you can say,

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

Here is a good time to practice your writing.

If your listening on a platform that has a comment section,

leave an example using I shouldn't have,

an actual example from your life.

It could be from today, it could be from the past,

it could be recent, or it could be from a long time ago.

And if you're not listening on a platform

that allows you to write a comment,

then just use a notebook for now.

Write down an example saying I shouldn't have,

and write that down.

So should have again, is mainly used to give advice

or recommendations for past events,

the event has gone but maybe you have advice for the past.

And sometimes you can learn from this.

So when you say, "Oh, I shouldn't have eaten so much,"

next time don't eat so much.

Let's talk about could have now, could have.

We use could have when we're talking about something

that we had the ability to do but we didn't do it.

We had the ability to do something but we didn't do it.

An example from my life.

When I left school,

or we call it college in the UK,

this is before university.

So, I finished college at 18

and I went to university just after finishing college,

and I had the opportunity to go to various universities.

And I can say, "I could've gone to Newcastle University,

but I went to Leeds instead."

I could have gone to Newcastle University,

but I went to Leeds instead.

This states that Newcastle University

accepted me as a student but I didn't go,

I had the opportunity to go but I didn't go.

Another example is,

"I could have passed that test,

but I didn't really work hard enough."

I could've passed that test, but I didn't work hard enough.

Again, this sounds a little bit

like a third conditional,

and we'll talk about that in a second.

But a lot of the time,

instead of using the third conditional,

we can just use the past simple.

Another example from Perfect English Grammar,

I'll leave a link to this as well.

"Julie could have bought the book,

but she borrowed it from the library instead."

You can just say,

"I could have bought it, but I borrowed it instead."

You had the ability to do it but you didn't do it.

Another example is this.

Imagine that I go and open the fridge and I say,

"Oh, we have no milk,

you just went shopping but we have no milk."

And I'm talking to my wife here.

My wife says, "Well, I could have bought some,

but you didn't tell me."

I could have bought some, but you didn't tell me.

It's time to turn that last sentence

into the third conditional, are you ready?

I could have bought some milk,

if you had told me we need some.

I could have bought some milk,

if you told me we needed some.

However, I think that it's more common to say,

"I could have bought some milk,

but you didn't tell me to get any."

So again, it's important to think about using could have

in sentences that feel like the third conditional,

but we're not always using the exact third conditional.

And I'll leave the examples that I'm using

below in the description so you can read along,

and just think about these a little bit more.

So could have, we're talking about something

that we had the ability to do in the past,

but we didn't do it.

I could have gone to Newcastle University,

but I went to Leeds instead.

Before I move on to would have,

there is one more example of could have,

because we can use it with an element of criticism, okay?

So for example, my friends they had this massive party,

but only invited me after it started.

And I can say to them in this case because I'm disappointed,

I couldn't go because I didn't have time to go.

I can tell them, "Oh, you could have invited me earlier."

You could have invited me earlier.

So we're using this with criticism,

we're saying you had the possibility

to invite me earlier and you didn't,

and that's why I couldn't come.

You could have invited me earlier.

Okay, let's talk about would have now.

Let's talk about would have,

and we use would have when we want to imagine

a result in the past ,

to imagine what would be different

if something else had happened, okay?

Again, most people will think about would have

using the third conditional.

However, just like could have,

we can use it in different ways too.

Let's start with an example.

We'll use the third conditional first.

So, when I was talking about university before,

we had the University of Leeds

and the university of Newcastle.

I also applied although this isn't true,

but let's just say it is true.

I also applied to Oxford University

but they said no, they said,

"Sorry, we are not accepting you as a student here."

I can say, "If Oxford had accepted me,

I would have gone there."

If Oxford had accepted me, I would have gone there.

And just to follow on from this,

"If I had gone to Oxford University, I would have hated it."

If I had gone to Oxford University, I would have hated it.

So again, we're imagining results in the past.

We're imagining different things happening in the past

by changing the past as well.

Oxford University didn't accept me as a student,

but if they had accepted me I would have gone there.

To use this without using that structured

third conditional sentence you can say,

"I would have gone to Oxford University,

but they didn't accept me."

I would've gone to Oxford University,

but they didn't accept me.

A super common example here which is really useful is,

if I had more time,

people talk about this a lot.

They'll say things like,

"Ugh, I would have done it if I had more time."

"I would have come to the party if I had more time."

"I would have traveled more if I had more money."

"I would have traveled more in the past

if I had more money."

So again, we're talking about things in the past

and imagining different results in the past,

if something else were different.

Let's talk about contractions and pronunciation here

and how this is retracted.

So, in spoken English you'll often hear,

should've, could've, and would've.

And a lot of the time this also gets contracted further to,

shoulda, woulda, coulda, or shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda,

shoulda, coulda, woulda, okay?

So instead of saying should have,

you can say shoulda, I shoulda done it.

Practice that, I shoulda done it, I shoulda done it.

Again, this is giving recommendations to yourself.

"Oh, I didn't do it but I shoulda done it."

I shoulda done it.

And then practice this one, "You coulda done it."

You could have done it.

And then, "I woulda done it but I didn't want to."

I woulda done it but I didn't want to.

Okay, hopefully that gives you a good overview

of how to you should have, could have, and would have.

And the key to this is practice,

and also understanding how it is used first

before you do practice.

So what I recommend doing now,

what you should do now is write some sentences

using should have, could have, and would have,

and make them really relevant to your life.

So make them relevant to your life and talk about examples,

write down examples that have happened recently.

And again, if you're on a platform

that allows you to do that,

then do it in the comment section.

If not, do it in your notes

and use the grammar tool that I recommend,

I'll leave the link to that in the description.

And also while you're in the description,

check out my book, "The Five Step Plan for English Fluency."

The resources I use for this lesson,

and the other links that I'll leave down there too.

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