Hi everybody, welcome back to EEP. In this video we want to talk about some modal verbs.
Modal verbs are words that come before a main verb in a sentence and
they're always followed by the base form of the verb. So after a modal you have
the base form. There are a lot of them; for example, will, could, should, won't...,
but today we just want to look at two: CAN and SHOULD and their negative forms.
CAN: it has some different uses but we're going to talk about CAN when it's
used to talk about ability, so whether or not I am able to do something
or whether we are able to do something.
The negative form of CAN is CANNOT,
which is actually all one word, strangely. So the word is C-A-N-N-O-T..one word,
which is the negative, but it can also be shortened to CAN'T, which is more common.
Another example, this one comes from a previous video:
I can wink each of my eyes and Misha can't wink her eyes.
So CAN talks about ability -
things that you are able to do, or not able to do - CAN'T.
So the other modal verb we want to talk about is SHOULD,
and we use SHOULD for giving advice. So if I want
to tell you how to do something or the best way I think something can be done,
I will use the modal SHOULD. And just like CAN, after SHOULD comes the base form of the verb.
So never TO, like "You should to go" --no.
Or never ING: "You should going" Always the very simple base form.
The negative form of SHOULD is SHOULD NOT as two separate words,
or put together with an apostrophe - SHOULDN'T, a contraction.
So if we're talking about learning something, I can
give advice: I think you should practice every day.
Larissa you shouldn't watch
scary movies late at night...or maybe ever.
I should listen to relaxing music before bed.
That's a good idea. Or I should turn off my
screens an hour before I want to sleep. That's right.
We're going to do a little activity.
We're going to look at a thing and decide what are some things we
CAN, SHOULD, CAN'T OR SHOULDN'T do with this thing.
Thing number one: a pencil. You can write with a pencil.
You can draw. You can.. oh I can balance a pencil. (She can't.)
You can put a pencil behind your ear. (fashionable) You can't eat it.
And you also can't hear it. It's not speaking. Nothing. That's a pencil-oh should.
What should you do with a pencil? You should sharpen it. Yeah this one's not very sharp.
We should sharpen it. We should..we should take care of it.
You shouldn't chew in it. Sometimes I do that. And you shouldn't drop it,
because the lead inside will break.
Thing number two: a pair of scissors.
What can we do with them? We can cut paper. We can cut hair.
We can't cut wood. We can't cut metal either.
What should we do with them?
We should be careful. We should carry them like this.
And we shouldn't run when we're carrying scissors. We tell our children.
And we shouldn't give them to babies.
Last thing: a potato -- a giant potato.
It's so big. It's the only one we have. A spouting potato.
You can eat a potato.
You can chop a potato. You can boil a potato.
You can't see through a potato.
And you can't break it with your hands. I think I can break it with my hands.
I can't. What should you do with a potato?
You should cook it before you eat it.
You shouldn't eat it raw.
And you should... you should eat it often because there's good vitamins in there.
You shouldn't wear it. And this potato you shouldn't carry around all day,
because it's really heavy.
All right, so to review, we use CAN and CAN'T when
we talk about things that we are or are not able to do,
and we use SHOULD when we want
to give advice, to tell somebody what we think the best way to do something is.
So remember the negative form of CAN is CANNOT, all one word, or CAN'T,
and the negative of SHOULD is SHOULDN'T or SHOULD NOT.
And after CAN and SHOULD, we always have the base form of the verb -- the very simplest form
And also remember that you CAN see many many more videos like this
at our YouTube channel and you SHOULD hit that subscribe button so you
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Are you gonna say something?
you
You shouldn't!