Learn to express regrets in English
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| Do you know how to express regrets in English? |
| I'll explain it in just a moment. |
| Hi, my name is Alisha, and this is Three Step English by EnglishClass101.com. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn how to express regrets through a quick conversation. |
| Let's look at the dialogue. |
| As you listen, pay attention to how they ask about the topic and how the other person responds. |
| It's freezing in here! |
| I wouldn't say "freezing." I'd say it's a cool 53 degrees or maybe less. |
| Fifty-three degrees? |
| That's Fahrenheit. |
| I see. Well, we should have gone to Green Burger. They have a terrace there. |
| Yeah, but the terrace is always crowded. |
| We should have called and made a reservation. |
| Let's go over the dialogue again, more slowly this time. |
| It's freezing in here! |
| I wouldn't say "freezing." I'd say it's a cool 53 degrees or maybe less. |
| Fifty-three degrees? |
| That's Fahrenheit. |
| I see. Well, we should have gone to Green Burger. They have a terrace there. |
| Yeah, but the terrace is always crowded. |
| We should have called and made a reservation. |
| Let's focus on the key part of the conversation. |
| This character is talking to this character |
| about where they are eating and what they could have done instead. |
| This character |
| is unhappy with where they are eating, and says "I see. Well, we should have gone to Green Burger. They have a terrace there." |
| To do this, they say "we should have gone..." |
| This means that going to Green Burger was the better choice, but it wasn’t made, and the speaker now regrets not choosing it. |
| When this character |
| says that the "terrace is always crowded," the response is another example of the pattern. |
| "We SHOULD HAVE called and made a reservation." |
| Calling and making a reservation was the correct choice, but the time has passed and the correct decision was not made. They are saying this to express regret that they did not make the correct decision. |
| Let's look at the sentence pattern. |
| This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. |
| [SUBJECT] should have [PAST PARTICIPLE]. |
| "Should have" helps us talk about missed chances or decisions we regret. Notice that it has to be followed by the [PAST PARTICIPLE] form of the verb. This is important because the past participle indicates the action took place (or should have taken place) in the past. |
| Let’s see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. |
| "We should have called and made a reservation." |
| In this sentence, "We" is the subject. "Called" and "made" are the past participle forms. |
| "Should have" can also be contracted to "should've." |
| You can only do this with the modal "should have" phrase. In other uses, like "you should have three apples left," you can NOT use the contraction. |
| Now let's look at some speaking examples. |
| We should have met up a bit later. |
| Can you see how the pattern applies here? |
| "We" is the subject, followed by "should have." Then, "met up" is the past participle. "A bit later" provides context on the time. |
| Let's look at another, |
| I should have taken my books back yesterday. |
| I should have taken my books back yesterday. |
| Let's try one more, |
| You should have made a reservation. |
| You should have made a reservation. |
| Another one. |
| They should have turned off the air conditioner. |
| They should have turned off the air conditioner. |
| One last example. |
| We should have ordered another pizza. |
| We should have ordered another pizza. |
| "Let's review. |
| Using the sentence pattern we learned, do you know how the words should be ordered?" |
| Gracie |
| Gracie should |
| Gracie should have |
| Gracie should have gotten |
| Gracie should have gotten a |
| Gracie should have gotten a smaller |
| Gracie should have gotten a smaller table. |
| Gracie should have gotten a smaller table. |
| "Let's review. |
| Using the sentence pattern we learned, do you know how the words should be ordered?" |
| They |
| They should |
| They should have |
| They should have turned |
| They should have turned off |
| They should have turned off the |
| They should have turned off the air |
| They should have turned off the air conditioner. |
| They should have turned off the air conditioner. |
| Now you know how to express regrets in English. |
| ...and now you can move on to the practice. |
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