Most people only use "should" for advice. However, did you know that you can also use it to talk about your expectations and past regrets? Not only that, but you can even use it to make your statements less certain. Learn to use should for MORE than just advice, and master this common and useful English modal verb.

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TRANSCRIPT

So come on and let me know: Should I stay or should I go? Oh, hey, everyone. One sec. Didn't see you there. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "4 Ways to Use 'Should'". Now, you are probably familiar with at least two of these ways if you have been studying English for a while. So the most common ways are the first two up here, and then we're going to look at two other ways that might be a little less familiar to you.

So, let's start with the first, the very first way that every student learns how to use "should" when they're studying English, which is for present or future advice. Now, the structure for this is "should" or "should not" if you're making a negative sentence, plus the base verb. So you have your subject: "I", "you", "he", "she", "it", "we", "they", "Mark", "Paul", "my mom", "your mom", whatever, plus this structure. So let's look at some examples of present or future advice. "You should call him." So you're giving the advice to your friend who maybe had a fight with, you know, their boyfriend or their husband or just a friend, and you think they should call him. It's a good idea for them to call him. Okay? "They shouldn't argue so much." Now, here you're kind of giving your opinion about another couple's relationship, and you're giving your advice to a friend about their situation, if that's not too confusing, I hope. So: "They shouldn't argue so much." They argue too much. My advice is they shouldn't argue so much. And third example for you guys: "He should apologize." If you, you know, want to be a good friend to your girlfriend or your boyfriend, and you want to give them, you know, support and tell them that their boyfriend needs to apologize, you're giving him advice even though he's not here. "He should apologize." It's a good idea for him to apologize to you because he made a mistake. Okay? Before we continue, I just want you guys to repeat these sentences after me so that, you know, we can practice the pronunciation and you're using the language that you're hearing in this video. So, repeat after me: "You should call him.", "They shouldn't argue so much.", "He should apologize."

All right, let's move on to the second way we use "should". Now, here you can use it for past advice or to show past regrets. So, the structure for this, just like up here, you have "should" or "should not" if it's negative, plus "have". It's always "have", it's never "has". Okay? It's always the base form of "have". "Should not have" plus the past participle of your main verb. So, let's look at some examples so this is easy to see. First one: "I shouldn't have done that." So you are showing personal regret for something you did in the past, and you feel bad because you really should have made a different decision, so you say: "I shouldn't have done that." Now, notice here, you know, I put the contraction. We're speaking. I want to give you practical skills, practical language that you can use. I could say: "He should not have done that", and be very formal, but really when most people speak, they speak in contractions, so you and I will speak in contractions in this video, too; like a pregnant woman, contractions. It's a joke. Next: "You should've asked me first." Now, again, you're talking to a friend and maybe they made a decision and you feel they made the decision without asking you your opinion or if the decision was okay. So maybe your friend, I don't know, like, grabbed your phone and used it to call long distance somewhere, and your phone plan is, you know, almost up, your data is all used up, maybe they're, I don't know, watching a YouTube video. If they're watching engVid, let them watch, like, all they want, it's cool. But if they're watching something else, you know, you say: "Oh, you should've asked me first." This is, again, contraction: "should have". "You should've asked me first." So before we continue, let's repeat these sentences one more time. So repeat after me: "I shouldn't have done that.", "You should've asked me first." Okay, so that's for past advice or past regrets. And here, again, if you're using "I", usually it's for regret. "I should have done something", "I shouldn't have done something".

Next: Expectation. So, if you expect something to happen or expect something to have happened in the past, you can use "should". Now, this can be used for present expectation, future expectation.

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