Should,Should have and had

better

Arrangement By:

• Cornelia Putri Permatasari (09)

• Faras Haura (15)

• Rona Nuha (32)

• Safaura KN (33)

• Sahda Dian Sanubari (34)

• Salma Inas Agustina (35)

Should

Should is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use should mainly

to:

• give advice or make recommendations

• talk about obligation

• talk about probability and expectation

• express the conditional mood

• replace a subjunctive structure

Structur of should

Subject +should+main verbsubject auxiliary verb main verb

+ He should go.

- Heshould not

go.shouldn't

? Should he go?

Notice that:

•Should is invariable. There is only one form of should.

•The main verb is always the bare infinitive.

Should

Use of Should

should: Giving advice, opinions

• We often use should when offering advice or opinions (similar to ought to):

• You should see the new James Bond movie. It's great!

• You should try to lose weight.

• John should get a haircut.

• He shouldn't smoke. And he should stop drinking too.

• What should I wear?

• They should make that illegal.

• There should be a law against that.

• People should worry more about global warming.

should: Obligation, duty, correctness

Another use of should (also similar to ought to)

is to indicate a kind of obligation, duty or correctness,

often when criticizing another person:

• You should be wearing your seat belt. (obligation)

• I should be at work now. (duty)

• You shouldn't have said that to her. (correctness)

• He should have been more careful.

• Should you be driving so fast?

should: Probability, expectation

We use should to indicate that we think something is probable (we expect it to happen):

• Are you ready? The train should be here soon.

• $10 is enough. It shouldn't cost more than that.

• Let's call Mary. She should have finished work by now.

should: Conditionals

• We sometimes use should (instead of would) for the first person singular (I) and first person plural (we) of some conditionals:

• If I lost my job I should have no money. (If he lost his job he would have no money.)

• We should be grateful if you could send us your latest catalogue.

• This is not a very important distinction. (More about the use of shall/will and should/would.)

should: (If I were you I should...) We often use the conditional structure "If I

were you I should..." to give advice. • If I were you, I should complain to the manager. • If I were you I shouldn't worry about it. • I shouldn't say anything if I were you. • Note that we can omit "If I were you..." and just

say: • I should complain to the manager.• I shouldn't worry about it.• I shouldn't say anything.• In these cases, the phrase "I should" really means

something like "you should".

should: Pseudo subjunctive

We often use a special verb form called the subjunctive when talking about events that somebody wants to happen, hopes will happen or imagines happening, for example:

• The president insists that the prime minister attend the meeting.

• However, this is much more common in American English. British English speakers would probably convey the same idea using should:

• The president insists that the prime minister should attend the meeting.

Subjunctivetypically American English

Using shouldtypically British English

The president is insisting that pollution be reduced.

The president is insisting that pollution should be reduced.

The manager recommended that Mary join the company.

The manager recommended that Mary should join the company.

It is essential that we decide today. It is essential that we should decide today.

It was necessary that everyone arrive on time.

It was necessary that everyone should arrive on time.

Here are some more examples:

should: Why should..? | How should..?

If we don't understand (or agree with) something, we may use "Why should..?":

• Why should it be illegal to commit suicide? It's your life.

• "Why should..?" and "How should..?" can also indicate anger or irritation:

• "Help me with this." | "Why should I?"

• "Where are my keys?" | "How should I know?"

should and should have

Should combines with the perfect infinitive to form should have + past participle when we want to talk about past events that did not happen, but should have happened. We are talking about an expectation and referring back to past time. Compare the following:

• Before Tom leaves for work, his wife advises him:You should take your umbrella. It might rain. ~ No, I'll be all right. I shan't need it.

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

• What did I tell you? You should have taken your umbrella. Then you wouldn't have got wet.

Reference to the present and future:

• You should try and smoke less, Henry. Your health isn't very good and it's getting worse.

Reference to the past:

• I should have given up smoking years ago, Mary. If I had, I wouldn't be in such bad shape now.

Had better

We use “had better” plus the infinitive without “to” to give advice. Although “had” is the past form of “have”, we use “had better” to give advice about the present or future.• You'd better tell her everything.• I'd better get back to work.• We'd better meet early.• The negative form is “had better not”.• You'd better not say anything.• I'd better not come.• We'd better not miss the start of his presentation.

We use “had better” to give advice about specific situations, not general ones. If you want to talk about general situations, you must use “should”.

• You should brush your teeth before you go to bed.

• I shouldn't listen to negative people.

• He should dress more appropriately for the office.

When we give advice about specific situations, it is also possible to use “should”.

• You shouldn't say anything.

• I should get back to work.

• We should meet early.

However, when we use “had better” there is a suggestion that if the advice is not followed, that something bad will happen.

• You'd better do what I say or else you will get into trouble.

• I'd better get back to work or my boss will be angry with me.

• We'd better get to the airport by five or else we may miss the flight.