Hi and welcome back. I'm Ganesh from LearnEnglishLab.com and today
we're going to talk about how to use should've, could've and would've correctly. All three of these
words are basically "should have," "could have" and "would have" so all of them have
the verb "have" here but I've written like this because when we speak we usually
shorten that to should've, could've and would've. Just that remember they have "have" in them.
These are all used to express regret about past decisions or actions. What does regret mean?
Regret means that we're unhappy about a decision or action in the past and
that is the function of these words, and all three of these are grammar words
To understand these better, I have a decision or action over on this side and
I have a result over on the side - this is a situation that we're going to use
to understand these words. Have a look at the decision or action
"I didn't study enough" and the result was "I failed my exam" - now a student might say this
I've heard a lot of students say this. His teacher might tell him - "You should've studied more."
What does she mean by that?
Well she's trying to say that she's not happy about his decision
His decision was that he didn't study enough. By saying this, his teacher is saying the
opposite of what happened. So what happened? He didn't study. She's saying
"You should've studied more."
So what this does is it shows that you're unhappy about the decision
This can be "you" or this can be "I". He might say, the student might say, "I should've studied more."
Or two people talking about him - maybe his teacher and another teacher
talking about him - his teacher might say, "Shane should've studied more."
"He didn't study and he failed." Alright, so this can be any subject. Could've is just like
should've but could've is a little softer. Have a look at this example
"He could've studied more but he didn't." Maybe this is his teacher saying this to
another teacher. And here,
could've focuses on the possibility. That's very important - this sentence says
that it was possible for him to study - he had the time he had the materials, he had
the books, he had everything. It was possible but he didn't do it. And often could've
is followed by this - "but he didn't." But it can be used in another way. You can also use could've
directly to someone if you want to say that you're not happy about their
decision. So you can say "You could've studied more." What that does is that's a
little softer than should've. Compare the two - if I tell you "You should've studied more"
Then it's a little strong. If I'm your teacher or parent that's OK but if I'm your
friend, you might be a little offended. It might be a little rude, so in that case
you can use could've. You can say "You could've studied more." See, it's a little
softer. So if you're saying it to someone's face, you can leave out the "but" - no "but"
"You could have studied more." But if you're talking about someone else
This is very common - "He could have studied more but he didn't." Alright?
Would've is a little interesting because it's just like should've and could've
because it's used to express regret, but there's one big difference and the
difference is - if you look at both should've and could've, they refer only
to the decision or the action - they're not talking about the result
But would've talks both about the decision or the action, and the result. So if you want to
talk about both of those, you use would've. Have a look at the sentence
"If Shane had studied more, he would've passed the exam. You can see that the decision or
the action is over here - "If Shane had studied more,"
The reality is he didn't study - so this is the opposite of this, and then
"he would have passed the exam." This is the opposite of this over here. He failed the exam
but "If Shane had studied more, he would've passed the exam." Notice this "had" over here
That's very important, because that's what really shows that
we're talking about the past. So don't leave that out, OK? Remember that. And then
of course you have "He would've passed the exam." Now we're going to move on and look at
one more example, one more situation but before we do that, I want you to notice
the form over here. After should've, could've and would've, you have "studied", "studied" over here
and "passed" over here. All of these are the past participle form of the verb.
OK so this is the
Remember that every verb has three forms - present, past and past participle
like go -> went -> gone. Do -> did -> done. Alright so this is
that third form - all the time. That's what's really easy about this because after should've
you simply put the past participle. Could've - same thing. With would've - both here, after "had"
and after "would've", you put the past participle form. Alright?
Really easy. Let's now move on and look at the next example and, this time
we're going to work on the example together and make these sentences. Alright, here we have the
next situation. Have a look.
"Meisha yelled at her workers." That was the action. And the result was
"Her workers quit." So basically, Meisha is the boss at her company and she kept yelling
Basically, that means shouting and screaming at her workers and her
workers said, "You know what? We don't want this, we quit." and they left the company. Alright, so
let's now make the sentences together for should've, could've and would've. So should've first.
How would you write this sentence? Now notice that here, the action is "Meisha yelled at her workers."
To write the opposite, you cannot use should've - you have to use should not have or shouldn't have
So can you make a sentence with shouldn't have? Let's look at the answer.
Alright here's the answer - "Meisha shouldn't have yelled at her workers."
Did you get that? Alright, let's now move on and talk about could've, and this time we're going to use "She"
Can you think of how you would use "could've" here? One word of caution you can use
should've and shouldn't have to express regret but you cannot use couldn't have
you can only use could've - that means that over here, you cannot say "she couldn't have"
because that doesn't make sense, because could've talks about possibility, so
no couldn't have. So without couldn't have, what sentence could you make here?
Well here, because we're talking about "Meisha yelled" think about it this way
Misha was rude to workers. That means Meisha was not polite to her workers. Does that give
you a clue? What can you say with could've over here? Let's look at the answer Alright, here it is.
"She could've been more polite to her workers." What this sentence says is
She had the opportunity - it was possible to be more polite to her workers but she was
not polite. She was yelling and screaming, and
they all quit. Alright, let's now finally look at would've we're starting with "If you"
That means someone else is saying this directly to Meisha. So what could they say?
Think about this sentence for a moment
Think about how you would say it, and I'll show you the answer. Alright let's
look at the answer now.
Alright, here - "If you hadn't yelled at your workers, they wouldn't have quit."
Did you get that? You can also write "If you had been more polite to your workers,
they wouldn't have quit." That is also correct. In the same way here as well you
can say Nisha should've been more polite. Of course that's changing the
sentence a little bit but that's also correct. Before we finish, I want to end
with a quick note on how to pronounce these words. With all of these -
should've, could've and would've - when we speak we don't "have". Okay? We say - and when we say it
It sounds like we're saying "should've" - this is /sh/ So - "should've", "should've". Or,
"could've". Or,
"would've".
In all of these - should've, could've and would've. So when you say this, for example -
"She could've been more polite." Say it with me.
"She could've been more polite."
"could've been", "could've been", "She should've been more polite", "should've been"
Alright? And when you say "shouldn't have" - "shouldn't have" this
This becomes "have".
"shouldn't have"
Sometimes when we say it fast, we even say "shouldn't have" - we leave the "t" out - shouldn't have
Alright? So should've, could've would've - practice saying that.
I hope you found this lesson useful and I'll see you in another lesson.