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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 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 bear
infinitive. You can see I need, to here. I ought go? 0
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 H 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 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 be 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
bear 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: 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
cuz 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, 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)
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About this lesson
Learn how to use “should” and “ought to” to give advice and express mild obligation.