should

The modal “should” talks about giving advice and making recommendations.^[1]https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/should-modals It is similar to the modals of “must” and “have to”, but used in a slightly different way.

Advice

The modal “should” can be used to give advice. In addition, it can be used in the past, present, and future verb tenses.

For example:

Past

• You should have eaten less for dinner.
• She should have arrived earlier to class.
• They shouldn’t have yelled loudly during the movie.

Present

• I should exercise more regularly.
• We should eat now.
• Joe should help us with the housework.

Future

• Susie should start studying for the test.
• Mark shouldn’t start complaining.
• You should start eating more healthily.

Expectation

The modal “should” can be used for expectation. In addition, it can be used in the past, present, and future verb tenses.

For example:

Past

• We should have arrived by now.
• They should have been finished by now.
• Frank should have stopped cooking.

Present

• I should be arriving now.
• You shouldn’t be studying now.
• It should be arriving now.

Future

• My friends should be arriving in an hour.
• The plane should be landing in 2.5 hours.
• The restaurant should be opening in 30 minutes.

Note: you can replace “should” with the words “be supposed to” and “ought to be”.

Obligation

The modal “should” can be used for obligations. There is not negative form when talking using should and talking about obligations.

For example:

• We should let her know.
• You should go to sleep.
• They should be quite.

Note: you can replace “should” with the words “be supposed to”.

Question

You can used the modal should to ask for advice about something. The question form of the modal “should” is:

• Should I wait for you?
• Should we tell her about it?
• Should they let us know?

Example Exercises