Transcription
I should go. I should be going. I should have gone. I should have been going. How do we use should? And how do we use these structures?
In today's lesson, I'm going to explain everything step by step. We're also going to look at ought to, just for a little bit. You know I love tests. At the end of this lesson, I have a test for you with 10 questions. Let me know how you did on the test in the comments below. Did you get 10 correct out of 10? Or maybe 6 correct out of 10? Let me know. My name's Arnel, let's start.
Let's start with the basics. Should is a modal verb. Other modal verbs in English include: Shall, can, could, will, would, would, may, might, and must. These verbs are really special in English. And don't worry, you don't need to know all of these verbs for today's lesson. These verbs are special because they never change. We have: subject, modal verb, plus the bare infinitive. What's the bare infinitive? Well, it's the most basic form of a verb. Go, eat, play, do, smile. Not, to go. Not ate. Not playing. The basic form of a verb. He shoulds go? Never. She should eats? Never. The form never changes.
We can do the same with ought to. Subject, ought to, plus bare infinitive. You can see I need "to" here. I ought go? No. Right, the structure is clear. Let's look at the pronunciation just for a minute because that's pretty important. Should sounds like "good." It's the same "sh" sound. Should, good. Should. This word with an American accent (which is what I have) is: ought. Ought like, naught. And because "ought" ends with a "t" and the next word starts with a "t," we just put them together. Ought to, ought to. And if you want to sound really natural, maybe even a bit lazy, you can say: Oughta, oughta.
We can summarize should into one sentence. Definition: It is better if you do this. What? It's better if you do this? What, what do I mean? Well, let's do a few examples. You should brush your teeth at least twice a day. Is this a rule or a law? No, but it's better if you do this. I'm out of printer paper. I know, I'll take a few sheets from Steve's printer (and "out of" means you have no more, you used everything). I'm out of printer paper. I'm out of toilet paper, or we're out of milk, there's no more. I'll take a sheet from Steve's printer. You should ask Steve first. Again, is this a rule or a law? No, we work in the same office, everybody shares everything, but it's better if you do this.
We've looked at two examples so far, I hope you're starting to get a feeling for should. Is should a strong obligation? No, it's a weak obligation. If you want to give a strong obligation, you can use must or have to. I have a complete lesson on this topic on my channel, and I'll leave um this video link in the comments down below for you.
Let's do a few more examples. Let's make the sentences negative. We're in a big city. You should not, you should not keep your phone in your back pocket. Should not and then the verb. Let's be natural and contract: you shouldn't, you shouldn't, you shouldn't keep your phone in your back pocket. Why? Well, because of pickpocket. A pickpocket is a person, a type of criminal who very quietly, very quickly, takes things from your bag or your pockets. A pickpocket is a person, but it can also be a verb, to pickpocket. Have you ever been pickpocketed? Hikers should not feed the wild animals. Hikers shouldn't feed the wild animals, it's better if you don't do this.
Let's look at the question form. Should I, should I send the team a message about Sienna's upcoming birthday? Should, subject, main verb. And upcoming is a great adjective. Upcoming means coming in the future, usually the near future. You could have an upcoming vacation, upcoming party, upcoming meeting. So it's a great adjective to use. Should the students work in pairs for this activity? Is it better if they do this?
Okay, here are all the examples we've looked at so far in this lesson. We can replace should with ought to. Is there a difference between should and ought to? The good news is the meaning is the same, but should is a lot more common. Ought to isn't as common as should. Should is also considered less formal, that's probably why you'll hear and see it more often. Ought to is a bit more formal. You ought to brush your teeth at least twice a day. You ought to brush your teeth at least twice a day. You ought to ask Steve first.
Now, I know I've already told you that ought to isn't as common as should. But in negatives and questions, ought to really isn't that common. I personally don't know when the last time I heard someone use a negative or question form, but it's still good to know, it's part of English. Okay, you ought not to keep your phone in your back pocket. Ought not to. You can see "not" squeezes between "ought" and "to." It squeezed in there, it's sneaky. Like a pickpocket. You ought not to keep your phone in your back pocket. "To" is optional. You ought not keep your phone in your back pocket. Let's make this natural, let's contract. You oughtn't, you oughtn't keep your phone in your back pocket. Hikers ought not to feed the animals, hikers ought not feed the animals. Hikers oughtn't feed the animals. Ought I? Ought I to send the team a message? Last one, ought the students to work in pairs?
Right, are these sentences here referring to the past, the present, or the future? When we use should and ought to like this, we're referring to the present or possibly the future. Like example number one, you ought to brush your teeth at least twice a day. This is just the general present, I'm talking about habits in general. But number five could be referring to the future. Should I send the team a message? Later? Tomorrow? Next week? If you're thinking, "What about the past?" I'm going to get to that later.
Because we know should means it's better if you do this, it's a weak obligation. It means we can use should to criticize or to give advice. We're telling someone something else would be better. It's cold in here, they should, they should turn up the heating. I'm criticizing this place, they should turn the heating up. This school shouldn't, shouldn't allow students to use their phones in class. Let's give some advice. You should really see someone about that mole (and in this sentence when I say "see someone," I mean see a doctor). You should consider taking a break from social media. Weak obligations, done. Criticism, done. Advice, done.
Let's do one more. Expectations, something you expect. It's 8:15, the bus should be here by now. I'm expecting this. There's not much tape left, but there should be enough to wrap that gift. I expect there's enough. Doctor: Your son is one year old, he should start walking any day now. He ought to, he ought to start walking any day now.
Mini review. You know the structures: should plus bare infinitive. Ought to plus bare infinitive. Should is more common, less formal. Ought to is less common, more formal. We can use these words to say: it's better if you do this, like a weak obligation. You should send your host mother some flowers for her birthday. We can use these words to criticize someone. You ought to spend more time with your family. We can give advice. You shouldn't worry what other people think about you. And we can express what we expect. Where's the bouncer? There should be security at the door (and a bouncer is one of those um big guys who stand at the door. They're the security of a club, a nightclub, a bar, something like that). Well, mini review, done. Let's keep going!
Let's say you're a gymnastics coach. You tell your gymnast, "You should stretch, you should stretch, you should be stretching, you should have stretched, you should have been stretching." So what's the difference? Here they're all different, and I'm going to go over each one step by step. What I'm going to do is I'm going to explain these all together. Why am I doing it like this? Well, sometimes the best way to learn something is by comparing it to other structures, so I hope that's helpful. And a lot of you know I love charts. We need a chart, a mega chart. Hello, I'm really small now because I need lots of space for my chart.
Let's start with the structures. I know I've been speaking a lot about structures in this lesson, but that's really the foundation of grammar. For structure, you know this. Should ought to plus bare infinitive. Should go, should eat, should play. You know this. Next one, should be plus verb-ing. Should be going, should be eating, should be playing. Again, the verb form never changes. He should is eating? No, the structure stays the same. Next one, should have plus the past participle. The past participle is verb form number three, as in: should have gone, should have eaten, should have played. Last one, should have been plus verb-ing. Should have been going, should have been eating, should have been playing.
Attention, attention! Sorry for the interruption. Should have is often contracted to should've in writing and speaking. Should've, should've. If you want to sound really natural, you can just say: Shoulda, shoulda. Shoulda gone, shoulda eaten, shoulda played. Okay, back to the lesson.
Right, the top row can be used to speak about the present or possibly the future. The bottom row can be used to speak about the past, that's really important. Top is present, bottom is past. Now the left side, the left side of this chart speaks about completed actions or actions in general. The right side of this chart speaks about ongoing or continuing actions. I think we need examples. You look tired, you should sleep, it's 1:00 a.m. Why are you awake? You should be sleeping. The first example focuses on an action in general. This is my advice, you should sleep. The second example focuses on the action in the present, something that should be ongoing. It's like the present continuous. Present continuous, now I am talking to you. You are watching this lesson. We just add "should." During this period, you are not sleeping, but you should, you should be sleeping. I'm so tired. No kidding, you went to bed at 2:00 a.m. You should have slept earlier. Now I'm focusing on a completed past action. You should have slept earlier. Did this person sleep earlier? No, I'm expressing what would have been better. So a lot of times we use "should" to express a regret. Here's a really common example a lot of my students give me: I should have started learning English a lot sooner. I heard you playing video games all night, you should have been sleeping. I'm focusing on a continuous action in the past. Over this whole period, you should have been sleeping.
Let's do another one. My friend Cal recently had back surgery. The doctor told him, "You shouldn't, you shouldn't lift anything heavy." General advice. I go to Cal's house, I see him lifting something heavy. I can say to him: "Put that down, you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be lifting anything heavy." I'm focusing on a continuing, ongoing action in the present. Now Cal is in the hospital again. I can tell him, "You shouldn't have lifted that heavy box of books, but you did." Single past action. You shouldn't have done that. Imagine I want to emphasize an ongoing past action. Repeated past actions. Well, Cal, you're in the hospital again. You shouldn't have been lifting all of those heavy things. Maybe he was moving things around in his office and was constantly lifting heavy things.
I think we need to do one more example before we move on to some real-life examples. It was my grandpa's 90th birthday party. I invited lots of friends, family, and I even hired a professional photographer because I wanted everything to be perfect. Do you think the photographer will take good pictures? He should, he's a pro. You can see here if the main verb is already clear, we don't need to repeat it. It's clear to everyone that I mean he should take some good pictures. Where's the photographer? Where is he? He should be taking pictures right now during this party. This is what he should be doing, where is he? After the party, a few weeks later, the photographer sends me all of the pictures. I'm not happy, I'm really disappointed, so I call him. "You should have taken at least one picture of my grandpa, but you didn't." This is one past action you should have done this. I saw you eating, talking, dancing with the guests. You should have been taking pictures. During the whole party in the past, repeated past actions should have been happening, but they weren't.
Right, let's move on to a few real-life examples. Here's an article from buzzfeed.com titled "17 Reasons Why You Should Be Growing Your Own Vegetables." We are focusing on the present. Could we say "should grow"? Yes, but the emphasis is different. The title wants to tell you that this is what you need to be doing now, in the present, not just in general.
Here's a clip from Superstore. We have a manager and an employee. "I got to just go dock your pay 'cause you should have been working all this time, slacker." Okay, "dock someone's pay" means a boss reduces your pay as a punishment. And "slacker" means a lazy person. Here we see, "should have been working." The emphasis is on a repeated or ongoing action in the past.
The next clip is from a recent Netflix documentary called "What Jennifer Did." There's a crime which the police think was a burglary. A burglary is when someone enters your home to steal things. But this detective says this: "But there's also stuff here that ought to have been taken, some valuables uh that weren't touched..." First of all, valuables are things that are considered expensive. Like jewelry, computers, etc. We can see "ought to have been taken." So this detective is suspicious because it's weird that some valuables were not taken. That's a strange burglary. What? Why are there two verbs here? Been and taken? Well, this is the passive voice. I have a full lesson on the passive voice if you want more information.
Later in the documentary, he's speaking about a woman he'd interviewed, but this woman did not tell him some important information. He says: "I mean, she should have provided information about that. But she didn't." So again, this detective is suspicious.
Test time, how do you feel? Do you feel ready for this test? I have 10 sentences and I have summarized this lesson into four points. Can you please connect A, B, C, or D to 1 through 10? One example has been done for you, so there you go, you get one point already. Pause the video to do this.
Okay, how did you do? Please leave me your score in the comments below, I love hearing from you. You can even give me a few example sentences. Practice, make the most out of this lesson. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time, bye!!! (Have I said anything I oughtn't?)