Okay. So, we use ‘must’ for obligations.
“He must... be working”. Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.
Oh, well. Let me play the next phrase without subtitles and I`ll see if I can understand it.
Okay. He said “You should told me”. I think I got this one.
Oh! He said “You should HAVE told me.”
But I didn’t hear that.
If you have been learning English for a while, you have probably studied something called
“Modal Verbs”. For example, you probably know that we use “Must” for obligations,
“May, Might or Could” for possibilities and “Should” for suggestions, right?
But did you know that there are more advanced ways to use these words in English?
In this video, you are going to learn three advanced aspects of Modal Verbs.
Take a look at these letters on the screen. Each letter refers to one of the advanced
uses of modal verbs we will be discussing today. Can you guess what they stand for?
So stick around until the end of this lesson because you will learn
what these letters stand for and how to use Modal Verbs in a more advanced way.
But before we start, in case you’re new here, our main goal here at RealLife English is to guide you
beyond the classroom so that you can understand anyone, be understood and connect to the world.
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Number one, deduction. To make a deduction means to reach a conclusion after thinking
about the known facts. Let me tell you a bit about a girl named Sarah.
Sarah has a brother, Matt, who is two years older than her. They have always gotten along well,
but they’ve recently fallen out with each other. You see, Sarah was playing in her room with one of
Matt’s toys, one of his favorite superhero action figures. When Matt saw his sister playing with his
toy, he got really angry, took the toy away from her and started yelling at her. Sarah then kicked
her brother’s leg and ran away. Furious, Matt yelled again. “I’ll never play with you again!”.
However, you walk through the park one day and see Sarah and Matt talking and laughing.
They seem friendly towards each other. They’re playing together and Matt even
hands in his favorite superhero action figure to his sister. What can you deduce from this?
If you answered all of them, you are correct!
We use “must” when we feel sure that something is true or it’s the only realistic possibility.
In this example, I gave you some facts and background information about Sarah and Matt,
and based on this information, you could deduce that they must be talking to each other again.
Options B and C are also correct. We use “may” or “might” to say that we think something is possible
but we’re not sure. They have the same meaning, but “may” is a bit more formal than “might”.
We can also use “could” instead of “may” or “might”. So the phrase here could be “Matt and
Sarah could be talking to each other again”. Here are more examples:
John is usually very talkative, but today he’s really quiet. He must be upset about something.
I don’t know why Jenny doesn’t want to play with us. She might be sick.
Bob should be here already. He may be stuck in traffic.
Maria looks so happy. She could be in love.
Now if you feel sure that something is not possible,
you can use the word “can’t”. For example:
Are you telling me that Patricia passed the test without studying? That can’t be true!
They had a really nasty argument. They can’t be talking to each other now.
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Number two, speculation about the past. To speculate means to guess possible answers
when you do not have enough information to be certain. In the second part of this lesson,
you’re going to learn how to use Modal Verbs to speculate about the past.
Now it’s time for me to tell you a little bit about a young man named Jack Jackson. Jack
Jackson lives in Jacksonville, in an apartment on Jackson Street. He’s a university student and his
classes are in the morning. Jack lives alone with his dog Jackie. But there’s a problem: Jack is not
the most organized person. In fact, his house is really messy - there are always dirty dishes in
the sink and things scattered all over the place. Today Jack is really excited - his older brother
is coming to visit him. His brother, John Jackson, is a very neat man. He loves to see everything
clean and organized. He told Jack he would be arriving this morning. Since Jack has classes
in the morning, he tells his brother to get the keys to the apartment under the welcome mat.
John Jackson arrives at Jack’s place and has a shocking surprise:
the place is a complete mess! Hours later, Jack gets home and greets his brother. Then,
he realizes that the whole apartment is clean and organized. What do you think happened?
If you chose option B, you are correct! We use must have + past participle when we
feel sure about what happened. In this example, with all the information we know about Jack,
it’s fair to assume that his brother was the one who cleaned his apartment. And we
can say this with a lot of conviction, given what we know about the situation.
Now if you don’t feel so sure about what happened, you can also say:
“His brother may have cleaned the apartment”. “His brother might have cleaned the apartment”.
“His brother could have cleaned the apartment”. On the other hand, since we are sure Jack
didn’t clean his apartment, we could say: “Jack can’t have cleaned his apartment.”
Here are more examples: You can’t stop talking about this movie.
You must have really liked it! I wonder why Melissa isn’t here.
She might have had to work late. I just saw the dogs. They can’t have gone too far.
Number three, pronunciation. In the final part of this lesson,
we’ll discuss how native speakers usually pronounce phrases with modal verbs in the past.
Let’s go back to the phrase “His brother must have cleaned the apartment”. Many times,
we contract the word “have”. So we usually say “His brother must’ve cleaned the apartment”.
But there’s another way we say this phrase: “His brother musta cleaned the
apartment”. It’s very common to hear that in movies, especially when people speak
fast. The word “have” gets so reduced that it becomes a schwa sound: uh. So we say “mus-tuh”.
This is very common in American English. The same thing happens to the
words “might” and “could”. “His brother might have cleaned
the apartment” becomes “His brother might’ve cleaned the apartment” which then becomes “His
brother mighta cleaned the apartment” Let’s try it now with the word “could”:
“His brother could have cleaned the apartment” becomes “His brother could’ve
cleaned the apartment” which then becomes “His brother coulda cleaned the apartment”
If you’re still watching, congratulations! You’ve made it ‘till the end of the lesson. You are on
your way to becoming a Citizen of the World! As a thank you, I will give you one last bonus tip.
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comment below with the hashtag #awwyeah so that we know how many of you enjoyed today’s lesson.
This will help us keep creating more relevant lessons for you!
Now the bonus tip has to do with the word “should” in the past. Do you remember the
example at the beginning of the video? When you tell someone that they should
have done something, you express that you disapprove of something they did. In this example,
our main character expresses frustration because the other person didn’t tell him something.
We also use should have + participle to say that we regret something. “To regret” means to feel bad
about something that you did or didn’t do. Here are some examples:
“I failed the exam because I didn’t prepare for it. I should’ve studied more.”
“I didn’t know it was going to rain so much. I should’ve taken an umbrella.”
Just like the other modal verbs, native speakers also reduce “should've” to “shoulda”.
For example: “I shoulda studied more.”
“I shoulda taken an umbrella.” So in this video you learned
three advanced aspects of modal verbs. Do you remember what these letters stand for?
That’s right. Deduction, Speculation about the past and Pronunciation.
If you enjoyed this lesson, make sure you share it with a friend who’s also learning English.
And if you are looking to keep learning, I recommend you try this lesson next.
I’ll see you in the next one!
In this lesson we'll learn how to apply features of connected speech to our questions.
Connected speech is how we cut and connect our words so that we can make our speech flow
more naturally. To illustrate this, I'll say this sentence first without connected
speech and then with connected speech. "I went on a trip with a friend of mine..."