Would, could or should?

1. Once the pack is opened, the cooked meat inside __________ be consumed within three

days.

2. I _______________ have helped you if I had known you were stranded. (I didn't know

that you were stranded. This "not knowing" occurred before my not helping you.)

3. I __________ already swim by the time I was three.

4. A: You _________ take your umbrella. It might rain.

B: No, I'll be all right. I won’t need it.

But it did rain. When he arrives back home, his wife says:

5. What did I tell you? You __________ have taken your umbrella. Then you __________n’t

have got wet.

6. If he'd taken an umbrella, he _________n’t have got wet on the way home.

7. I __________ have given up smoking years ago, Mary. If I had, I _________n’t be in such bad shape now.

8. If he'd trained harder, I'm sure he ___________ have completed the swim. (He failed

because he wasn’t fit enough.)

9. I ___________ if I ___________. (common fixed phrase in English)

10. A: Why did you come to the meeting? It didn't need both of us. You _________ have

known that I would be there.

B: How _________ I have known you'd be there? I haven't spoken to you for a fortnight!

A: If I'd known you were intending to go, I certainly _________n’t have gone!

For more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv195.shtml

Adapted by Sandy Millin http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/wouldshouldcould