Correct Use of COULD, SHOULD and WOULD - Modal Verbs in English Grammar

wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody my name is Alisha in this lesson I'm going to talk about the differences between wood could and should I'm going to give a very quick introduction to several different ways that we use these words and share a few example sentences so that you can get an idea of the kinds of patterns that we use when we're using these words so let's begin with the word wood okay in blue I've marked a couple of kind of key points for a review of ways that we can use the word wood these are kind of made with some key grammar points in mind let's begin with the first point here we use wood to talk about unreal situations in the present that means situations that are not real things that are not true but we want to talk about them so these are very common if patterns so for example if I were I would if he were he would so you can see both of these start with an if statement so that means that these are not real situations we're just talking about the possibility of something and then we're describing an action in this case it's a positive action with the word wood so for example if I were a doctor I would work in a hospital for example in that example sentence I'm not a doctor but I'm explaining if I were a doctor I would work in a hospital so I don't use the verb will because it's not an actual situation and I don't expect it's going to happen I'm just talking about an unreal situation another point here is your pronunciation when you use the word would will contract it along with whatever you're talking about so for example I would becomes I'd he would becomes he'd and we'll see some more examples of this kind of pronunciation a little bit later but when you're pronouncing if I were I would is correct but to make it sound a little bit more natural used if I were I'd it sounds a lot better so this is the first point talking about unreal situations in the present of course you can use a negative here if I were a doctor I wouldn't drink alcohol for example so we can use the positive wood and the negative wouldn't in these patterns then similarly the second point I want to introduce today is using wood to talk about unreal situations in the past so this is about the present we just reviewed how to use wood in the present but if you're using wood you can also use it to talk about unreal situations in the past so things in the past that were not true in these cases will use a past tense verb in the if clause here so for example if I had blah blah blah in this case I'm using this to explain like an action that I did not do but if just in case in the situation that the action did happen so I'm using this this pattern if I had and then a verb would come after that so for example if I had woken up earlier I would have been on time for school for example so these are past tense unreal situations or past unreal situations rather so here we see wood again but when we're using wood to talk about unreal situations in the past we need to use have to make a positive statement I would have and the pronunciation changes too would've would have if I had I would have of course we can use would not have as well to make a negative statement if I had I would not have and in a contracted pronunciation and a reduced pronunciation it sounds like I wouldn't have I wouldn't have or even shorter wouldn't would not as well so if I had I would have if I hadn't I wouldn't have for example another one if she had she would have so in natural pronunciation if she had become a teacher she would have taught math for example so these are unreal so these are not true these if statements introduce something that is not true but we want to talk about the possibility that's all okay let's move along to the next use that I have in blue here just a quick one because there's not much space on the board first used to talk about the future in the past so this might be a little bit confusing this means when you want to talk about your past but you want to explain something you were thinking or something you were considering about the future at that time you can use wood to do that an example when I was past tense when I was a kid I thought again past tense I thought I would be a doctor so meaning when I was a child at that time when I was a kid my thinking I show that with past tense here my thinking was that in the future I would be a doctor so we use wood to explain something in the future that we were thinking about or something in the past so something happened in the past something some idea for example we use wood to explain that future so that's this point let's go on though to the next one we use wood as a past form of will when we're reporting something so by reporting I mean he said she said and so on so when someone says I will do something and you want to report that in the past you can use wood to do that in this example Tom said he would pay for coffee Tom said he would pay for coffee this doesn't mean if I'm Tom I didn't say I would pay for coffee that's not what Tom said Tom says I will pay for coffee that was Tom's expression Tom said I will pay for coffee but if I'm a different person I want to report what Tom said I say Tom said he would pay for coffee so that would means tense I'm reporting Tom's will Tom said I will pay for coffee but when I report it I say Tom said he would pay for coffee that's what's happening there okay so we use this to talk about reporting things all right those are some key points but just some other reminders - about using wood we use wood for formal requests like would you like some coffee would you like some tea we also use it to talk about regular actions in the past this is similar to used to but we use wood to explain things that we did regularly so for example when I was a kid I would eat ice cream every day for example or when I was in university I would see my friends every afternoon so we can use wood to do that to explain regular activities in the past but maybe these are particularly challenging so you might need to take some time to review these grammar points as well okay so let's move along and maybe compare this to could let's look at the second point for today good we use could to talk about possible situations in the present possible situations this is a key difference from Wood Wood is unreal situations so it's something that is not true now could refers to something that is possible like something we can possibly do now or very soon in the future for example we could see a movie today in this sentence we're showing it's possible to see a movie today we can't use we would see a movie today that doesn't make sense here we're expressing possibility only we could see a movie today it's possible to see a movie today in this sentence you could try a new recipe for example here it's possible to try a new recipe it's possible for you to try a new recipe so both of these actually sound like suggestions so if someone said what do you want to do today and the other person replied we could see a movie today it's a suggestion they're suggesting a possible activity same thing here what do you want to eat for dinner tonight the other person was Bonz you could try a new recipe like for someone who's cooking these express possibility and we cannot use wood here because we don't use wood to give like suggestions about things that are possible we're just talking about a situation that's not true okay so similarly we can use this to talk about possible unreal situations in the past so here yes we have unreal again like we saw with wood but here we're also talking about possible situations so let's look at the examples first then we can compare here past tense if I had I could have and again this actually reduces could have reduces to could've could've if I add or if I'd if I'd I could've so for example if I had studied harder I could have passed the test if I had studied harder I could have passed the test that's how a native speaker would say it so if I had studied harder I could have passed the test this is actually quite similar to if I had studied harder I would have passed the test what's the difference there this one sounds more confident if I had studied harder I would have passed the test we're using would have here meaning that there's a high level of confidence here we're only talking about possibility if I had studied harder I could have passed the test it was possible using would have shows like if I had studied harder I'm pretty sure I will in other words think of this as like will but for like an unreal situation I would have passed the test I didn't but I would have if I had studied harder this is could have so they're quite similar here just different levels of confidence in the next one if you had you could have so in this example mmm if you had sent him a message you could have met him for dinner if you had sent him a message you could have met him for dinner so this means the other person did not send a message and therefore did not meet the other person for dinner but it was possible to do that in the past so here if we use this expression if you had sent him a message you would have met him for dinner it sounds a little bit odd because it's quite a high level of certainty this is like will again like you would have met him for dinner there's a like a definite it's a definite thing here however it's just a possibility if you had sent him a message you could have met him for dinner so that shows it would have been possible to meet for dinner to use kind of a confusing expression there but meaning the possibility was there but you had to have done this thing first so possibility here all right let's move on to the next point we use could to express past ability past ability for example when I was little I could speak Spanish so here we see again past when I was little meaning a little kid physically little I could speak Spanish so we can think of this like past tense can that's all ok another one we use this to express impossibility that something is impossible or for that matter possible so I'll show a possible example and then an impossible example - ok first one this could be the correct address so meaning it's possible this is the correct address this shows that there's just a possibility if however we use not here sorry this is not I know it's really small there but if I use not this could not be the correct address using could not shows something is totally impossible 100% impossible no chance this could not be the correct address it's not possible so for example this address is like five five five ABC Street the correct address is like I don't know for four for ABC Street or something this could not be the correct address something is wrong here we see the same thing could not accept I've contracted it also I've used past here so that couldn't have been Sarah she's at work in this sentence for example I'm out shopping and I think I see my colleague Sarah but I think to myself no that couldn't have been Sarah so here's my past tense couldn't have been that couldn't have been Sarah Sarah's at work I know my colleague is at work it's not possible that that was Sarah because Sarah is at work I use couldn't have been to express that so showing past impossibility I use this expression to do it okay lots of there a couple other reminders we use could to ask permission could I do something we also use it for requests as well could you please help me with something so just a couple extra reminders there all right let's move on to the last point for this lesson the word should should so we use should to give and request advice examples you should find a new apartment so here should comes from comes before the verb you should find a new apartment is a suggestion that's advice to somebody he should get a new job that someone's recommendation a piece of advice they should stop smoking again advice when you want to request advice there's you could use a simple pattern like what should I do or what do you think I should do or what should I get for example we also use should to talk about improvements to past actions so this is commonly used to express regret or like we wish we had done something differently we wish that we maybe chose something different so examples of this I should have studied more I should have studied more so here we have should here is my past activity that I did not do enough of so here in other words my feeling is I did not study enough in the past I want to express more study would have been better so I say I should have studied more I should have studied more is a native speaker pronunciation I should have studied more so this more refers to more than I did in the past so you'll see this used with the comparative form of adjectives quite a lot example a second example you shouldn't have had so much to drink you shouldn't have had so much to drink here we see the negative you shouldn't have had you shouldn't had is how we'll say it you shouldn't have had so much to drink in other words you drank too much you should not have had so much to drink you shouldn't have had so much to drink so you drank too much in other words so this is an improvement to a past action someone is suggesting an improvement like I wish you hadn't had so much to drink for example you shouldn't have had one more he should have spoken to her he should have spoken to her he should have spoken to her here we see should and again past in this case so he should have spoken to her meaning he did not speak to her but the speaker feels oh he should have mm that would have been a good choice he should have spoken to her so we use this to talk about often regret things we did not do but we think now I should have done that thing okay so that's a very actually quick introduction to some huge huge grammar points if you have questions about any of these points please let me know in the comments so that I can find like a key point and make a different video explaining more about that point so if you have questions or if you have comments or if you want to practice making a sentence please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video of course if you liked the video please make sure to give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel and come check us out at English class 101.com for some other good ways to practice your English thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon bye [Music]

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Length: 17min 41sec (1061 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021