| Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about four modal verbs and how we use them with "be," plus a verb in the -ing form. This can be a very confusing grammar pattern for many people, so let's take a look at a lot of examples and break down what's happening in each sentence. |
| Okay. First, let's begin with "should," should. So, for this pattern, we'll follow "should," plus "be," plus a verb in the -ing form. So, what does this mean? When we use this grammar structure, it expresses an action or a condition the speaker expects to be true. So, remember, we use "should" a lot in advice or suggestion patterns, right? We have some kind of expectation or some kind of feeling that this is a good thing to do or is not a good thing to do. We use it to express a kind of expectation we have, and the same is true in these kinds of sentences. Let's take a look at the examples. |
| First, "It's 3 a.m., you should be sleeping." "It's 3 a.m., you should be sleeping." So, here, we have "should be sleeping." So, here's my verb in the -ing form. This expresses the speaker's expectation that the listener "should be," the listener's expected activity is sleep. We use this -ing pattern here, this -ing form, to mean that that should be a continuing state. So, you might also hear people say something like, "You should be asleep." That's also correct. But, using this pattern is also quite common. "Right now, you should be sleeping. It's 3 a.m." This is the expected action at this point in time. Let's look at another example of this. |
| "It's 5 o'clock and his flight landed at 4,30. He should be leaving the airport any minute." So, once more, "It's 5 o'clock and his flight landed at 4,30. He should be leaving the airport any minute." Okay. So, in this situation, the speaker looks at their watch or the clock and sees it's 5 o'clock now. His flight landed 30 minutes earlier. So, my expectation is he will leave very soon. So, he should be leaving the airport any minute. So, again, we expect that in any moment, at any minute, we are going to see him leaving, in the act of leaving the airport. So, we use this grammar pattern to express that. "It's 5 o'clock and his flight landed at 4,30. He should be leaving the airport any minute." So, again we're expressing some kind of expectation here. Let's look at one more example. |
| "Our test is tomorrow! We should be studying, not partying!" So, once more, "Our test is tomorrow! We should be studying, not partying." Okay. In this example, we see "should be studying," and then we also have "not partying." So, this sentence suggests the "we," so maybe a group of students in this case, the group of students maybe now they're partying. But, one person says, "We should be studying, not partying." So, again, they're expressing some expectation some kind of desired behavior here. "We should be studying in this moment. But, in this moment, we're partying. So, that's not right." We express that with this kind of sentence, "Our test is tomorrow! We should be studying, not partying." So, we use "should" with this grammar pattern to express that expectation, some action or condition the speaker expects or desires to be true. |
| Okay. Let's compare this to "could." So, we'll follow the same grammar pattern here, "could," plus "be," plus a verb in the -ing form. However, the meaning does change. Let's look at how. When we use "could" in this pattern, it expresses an action or a condition the speaker feels is possible. Something that is just possible. So, you'll see a little bit later, when I talk about this, it's a lower chance than "may" or "might." I'm going to talk about "may" and "might" later. But, when we use "could," it's like a neutral expression of possibility. So, when we use words like "may," or "might," or "maybe," or "perhaps" for example, those express a higher degree, a higher level of chance or possibility. "Could," it's just we want to say something is just possible. We don't want to express a level of possibility. So, let's look at some examples of this. |
| "Hmm, the meeting started 10 minutes ago but our boss isn't here he could be running late." So, once more, "Hmm, the meeting started 10 minutes ago, but our boss isn't here. He could be running late." This sentence uses "could be running." So, this expression, "to run late," means to be late for something. So, you're doing many activities, and it's kind of like you're running maybe. You can use that to help you remember this expression, if you want. But, we have it in the progressive form here, this continuous -ing form. "He could be running late." So, that suggests in this moment, he is in the condition of running late. He is late for his appointments. "He could be" shows it's just a possibility. So, we want to share one idea for why the boss is not at the meeting. It's just one idea. We're not expressing possibility with this, we're just expressing this is a possibility. We're not expressing the level that's a key difference between this and "may" and "might," which I'll talk about later. So, "he could be running late," and someone else on your team might say, "Oh, yeah. He could be." So, just acknowledge to show, yes, that is a possibility, sure. So, this just says this is one idea, one example, one thing that could be true here. |
| Okay. Let's look at another example. "My girlfriend didn't pick up the phone. She could be cooking." So, again. "My girlfriend didn't pick up the phone. She could be cooking." So, in this case, someone, he tried to call his girlfriend. This person tried to call their girlfriend, and the girlfriend did not pick up the phone. She did not answer. So, the speaker is thinking of a reason why. Okay. "Well, she could be cooking." "She could be cooking." So, in this moment, she is cooking and that's why she didn't pick up the phone. She "could be." So, again, "could be" just expresses one possibility. We're not talking about a level of chance. We're just sharing an idea for a reason for something. So, we'll talk about this a little bit more later in the lesson when we talk about "may" and "might." |
| So, this is "should" and "could," and please note that you cannot always interchange these verbs that I'm going to discuss a little bit later. For example, if we compare "should" and "could" here, we could not for example use "should" in this sentence. "He should be running late," that's not going to make any sense. Because "should" expresses an expectation or a desire that is probably not what we want to express here. This one, "My girlfriend didn't pick up the phone. She should be cooking dinner," that expresses an expectation on the speaker's part. That sounds a little aggressive. Like, "she should be cooking dinner." So, that sounds a little too aggressive here. Hopefully, you don't need to use that expression. But, please keep in mind, you cannot just swap or interchange these verbs. We'll look at this in a little bit more detail later with some other verbs, too. |
| Okay. Let's go to the other side of the board. Let's talk about "would," would. So, "would" is a little bit different from the other ones here because we use it in typically one kind of pattern, a conditional pattern. We do this because we use "would" when we talk about unreal situations, unreal situations. So, "would" in this grammar pattern, "would," plus "be," plus verb -ing, expresses an action planned for an unreal situation. So, we're just imagining something. It's those, "What would you do if?" situations. So, we imagine a situation, where we imagine a condition, and we express our plan for that situation or condition. It's not true, it's not real. We're just imagining it. So, when we want to imagine some continuing state or continuing action, we use "would" to do that. So, what does this look like? Let's take a look. |
| First, "Your project deadline is tomorrow? I would be working really hard right now if I were you!" So, again. "Your project deadline is tomorrow? I would be working really hard right now if I were you!" So, what's this conditional? My conditional here, you can find the "if" part here. "If I were you," so obviously, I am not you, right? So, it's not a real or true situation. "If I were you, I would be working really hard right now." So, I would be working really hard right now. In my condition, if I were in the same situation as you. So, we use "would" to describe this. A very common error I see in this kind of pattern is learners sometimes use "will" here. "I will be working," nope. Incorrect. You cannot use "will"
in this situation. You should not use "should" as well, "I should be working really hard," or "I could be working really hard." You need to use "would" because it's an unreal situation. That's the key point for this "would" portion of this lesson. Let's look at another example sentence. |
| "You had a fight with your roommate? If I were you, I would be trying to fix the relationship." So, once more. "You had a fight with your roommate? If I were you, I would be trying to fix the relationship." So, here's our pattern, "I would be trying." "I would be trying." So, that means in this moment, if I were you, my current action would be trying to fix the relationship. So, again, I'm not you, I want to express this plan. If I were you, in your shoes, this would be my action. "I would be trying to fix the relationship." So, you might think to yourself like, "Okay. Why do I have to use the progressive form here? Can I say, 'If I were you, I would try to fix the relationship'?" Yes. That is also okay. So, the difference in those situations, like "if I were you, I would try to fix the relationship," and "if I were you, I would be trying." It's very small really in this situation. I would try" or "I would be trying." So, "be trying" means in this moment, I would be working on doing something to repair the relationship. The other one doesn't have that same feeling of urgency, of doing something now. "I would try to fix the relationship," means kind of, generally. Yeah? "I would be trying" sounds like actively, I would be doing this activity now. So, that's the difference. |
| Okay. Let's look at one more example. "You got a new job? Congrats! I would be celebrating all weekend if I were you!" So, once more. "You got a new job? Congrats! I would be celebrating all weekend if I were you!" So, this "congrats" is short for "congratulations," "Congratulations!" So, you got a good, a new job, a good new job, hopefully. I would be celebrating all weekend if I were you. So, again, this unreal situation. "If I were you," and here's my plan, "I would be celebrating all weekend." So, maybe it's the weekend now, maybe Friday or something like that, and this person is expressing if I were you, in your situation, this would be my weekend plan. "I would be celebrating all weekend if I were you." So, a key point to keep in mind about this grammar structure with "would," you need to use it in unreal situations like these. This is a very, very common pattern. We see it used with this, "if I were you, I would be," something, something, -ing. This kind of pattern is extremely, extremely common with this. |
| Okay. Let's go to the last point for this lesson. This is with "may" and "might." I talked about this a little bit earlier with "could." So, we use "may" and "might" in this grammar pattern to express an action or a condition the speaker feels is possible. So, I talked about this with "could" earlier, yeah. With "could," I said that we use could just to express possibility. We're not talking about chance. When we use "may" or "might," however, we are expressing some kind of chance. There's maybe 30% or 50% chance. We can use our voice to show kind of the level that we think is possible. So, we use this when we feel a little more sure about something. When we have a pretty good guess about something. So, let's take a look at some examples. |
| First, "My friend said to meet at this café, but he isn't here. Hmm, he might be waiting inside." So, again, "My friend said to meet at this café, but he isn't here. Hmm, he might be waiting inside." So, in this situation, someone arrives at a cafe to meet their friend. But, they look around outside the cafe and they can't find their friend. So, they think to themselves, "Okay. Well, I'm at the meeting place. So, logically, there's a good chance he's inside. " So, he might be waiting inside. "He might be waiting inside," shows us that this is the continuing condition or the continuing action. The other person waiting, that's continuing so he might be waiting. Or, you could use "may be waiting." "May" is going to sound more formal in American English, both are correct though. So, "Hmm, he might be waiting inside." So, this sounds more natural than "could" in this sentence. Because we have a pretty good guess, right? You have a plan to meet someone in this place, but you don't see them. So, you have a pretty good guess, there's a pretty good chance of this other thing being true. He might be waiting inside. |
| Okay. Let's look at another example. "I haven't heard from my friend recently. She might be dealing with a stressful situation at work." "I haven't heard from my friend recently. She might be dealing with a stressful situation at work." Okay. So, this part is our pattern, "she might be dealing," she might be dealing. So, "to deal with something," means to handle something or to address something. To take care of a serious situation, or to take care of something. So, "She might be dealing with a stressful situation at work." So, again, we're kind of thinking to ourselves about this current situation. Hmm, I haven't heard from my friend. We think of a reason for this. Why? Hmm. Well, she might be dealing with a stressful situation at work. I know she has a stressful job, or maybe she's been very busy recently. So, she might be dealing with a stressful situation at work. Again, we could use "could" in this sentence. But, if you want to show a higher level of possibility, you can use "might" to do that. So, you have some background about your friend, and you decide, hmm, it's probably this. So, she might be dealing with a stressful situation at work. This will show you feel you have a pretty good idea of why you haven't heard from her recently. |
| Okay. Let's move to our last example for this lesson. "My roommate isn't going out much." "My roommate isn't going out much. He may be trying to save money." He may be trying to save money. So, here's our pattern, "may be trying." "He may be trying to save money." So, again, we are making a guess about a current situation. My roommate isn't going out much. So, maybe my roommate usually likes to go out. They go out to eat, they go out to party, whatever it is. But my roommate isn't going out much, hmm. He may be trying to save money. So, this is one idea. Again, we could use "could" in this sentence. "He could be trying to save money." That's just a neutral expression of possibility. It is also correct. He may be trying to save money, or he "might" be trying to save money, to make it sound a little more casual in American English. So, "he may be trying to save money" expresses our idea. There's a pretty good idea we have, maybe it's this. So, he may be trying to save money. |
| Again, we cannot change these modal verbs out for "would," for example, or maybe "should" or "could" without changing the feeling of the sentence slightly. So, please keep in mind these different feelings that the different modal verbs create in our sentences. So, this grammar pattern is very useful for making guesses about current situations. Like with "should," "could," and "may" and "might." And, it's useful for imagining future situations with "would." |
| Alright. So, there are four modal verbs with the "be," verb -ing pattern. I hope that you found something useful in this lesson. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye! |
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