Should Have … so many things we should have done.

June 10, 2009 · By admin

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He really should have taken an umbrella!

The use of ’should have’ seems to cause a lot of problems for English language learners. After learning the Present Perfect and Conditional they look at this and wonder what sort of animal it is. Well, let’s take a look at it!

Basically, we use ’should have’ to talk about past events that did not happen but, if they had happened, would have improved the outcome of an actual event in the past. It is often used to give advice about a course of action in the past. For example, if I had known that it was going to rain this morning but I still went out without an umbrella and, as a result, got wet, you may say to me- “You should have taken your umbrella!”. OK, not very useful advice once the action is passed and I am standing there dripping wet but a very common way in English to give advice - useful perhaps for the next rainy day!

Let’s look at a few more examples:

• I should have told her to telephone her mother but I forgot.
• I should have known better than to trust them - they stole all my money.
• The government should not have given so much money to the banks.
• Fatima sings beautifully. She should have been a professional singer.
• Alfonso missed an easy goal. He should have kicked the ball in from the corner.

You can see that we can also use ‘should not have‘ to express a regret for a past action.