Shadowing Practice: 2705 - Could Have, Should Have or Must Have? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey, Lindsay, how are you today?

Hey, Aubrey, I'm feeling good today.

How are you?

How's everything?

I am great.

I have a question for you.

All right.

What is something you should have done last week, but didn't get to?

Oh my gosh.

There's always something, right?

There's a lot of work things.

A lot of emails I have not returned that people are waiting and I went on vacation last week.

So that's probably not so good, but I will get to it eventually, right?

Right.

Exactly.

We all have this something we should have done last week, something on our to -do list.

We weren't able to get to it.

But what's interesting is how would that be different if I had said, what's something you could have done last week,

but didn't get to, or what's something you must have that we wouldn't even say it that way, right?

These modals really change the question, right?

It really does.

When you say what's something you could have done, it's more like it would have been voluntary.

It would have been an optional thing.

Whereas should have returned those emails.

Those people are waiting to hear back.

Yes.

It's very different, right?

Kind of very optional, not something on your to -do list of things that have to get done.

Yeah.

So we got a great question about this on YouTube about the differences between some of these modals.

Do you want to read that question for us, Lindsay?

Yes.

This is from Cypher Ahmad Sendiki, 1871.

Great handle there.

Dears, would you talk Talk about the differences between could have, should have, and must have.

Such a great question, right?

These are all modal verbs that are used to make guesses, express regret, or talk about past possibilities.

And it really does change.

Like the feeling of what you're asking

or the meaning of what you're saying changes a lot depending on which one you use.

Massively.

So we're going to make sure we clear this up for our listeners today.

And I'm sure many of our listeners have the same question, right?

Are wondering the same thing.

Yes.

Guys, before we go any further, though, make sure you hit the follow button right here on All Airs English.

Pretty soon we're getting, well, we're in the fall already, aren't we, Aubrey?

We're well into the fall.

We want to be really lined up with our learning.

If you get addicted to All Airs English, you will see the improvement.

We've had so many students tell us they just listen five days a week and they're listening improved enormously.

So become one of those people.

All right.

Yes, absolutely.

I love that.

I love hearing that feedback from students for sure.

Yeah.

So let's share really quick right off the top here, the grammar of this for each of these, the grammar structure is the same.

So that helps at least you have this modal either could, should, or must, and then they're all structured the same.

After that, you're going to have the word have, and then the past participle, right?

So something you should have done, must have done, would have all of the past participle will be different for every verb depending on what you're talking about

but the structure is always the same yes perfect so keep

that in mind guys as we go through all three of these it's always the same structure

so that offers a little bit of i don't know it's a little calming to know

that i think

so right the grammar is a little easier here it's what's tricky is the context the meaning

which one should you choose depending on what you want to say exactly all All right.

So should we go into could have Aubrey first?

The very first one.

Okay.

So this is talking about past possibilities, something you could have done, right?

So Aubrey, tell us more about this.

Yeah.

So you're going to use it when you think something was possible, but you aren't sure.

So for example, she could have taken the earlier train, right?

So we're saying like, I could have done that.

We think that was a possibility, right?

This could have happened, but you can't be sure with could have.

Otherwise you would use a different modal that expresses more surety, more certainty.

Right.

She could have taken the earlier train.

They could have missed our message.

Right.

They like basically saying another way to say this would be, they might have missed our message.

Exactly.

Same meaning, right?

You're, you're saying that something was a possibility.

You don't know for sure you're giving a possibility.

And we use this a lot when something has gone wrong

or something hasn't worked out like we thought it would we're saying what might have been what could have been

but we don't know for sure yes

or it could have been a misunderstanding right maybe the person said something

and you misunderstood them or they didn't mean to say it in the way

that that you received it or something like

that right this i use a lot if

if someone's sharing with me something that happened with a friend

and the friend's response doesn't make sense from what I know about them, right?

100

You're seeing this disconnect.

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And so this might be how you, instead of saying, uh, that is terrible.

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They're a terrible person.

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You might say something like this.

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Maybe it was a misunderstanding or it could have been a misunderstanding.

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You're trying to give the other person grace

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because what you're hearing about them doesn't match up with what you know about them.

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Yes.

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And also, uh, give the person the benefit of the doubt is what you're doing here.

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Right.

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Exactly.

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I think that's a really good way to go through life you know you just give people the benefit of the doubt, um, and assume things are just a misunderstanding.

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I love it.

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It's going to solve, or it's going to prevent a lot of problems if you do that, because often when we assume the worst, we're wrong, right?

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We turn, we end up apologizing.

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We're like, you know what?

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I shouldn't have believed that about you.

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I shouldn't have assumed that about you without knowing for sure.

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And then we feel like a jerk, right?

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Because our mind was going in that direction yeah

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so it's a good way to go through a connection right

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but we use this could have another way

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and it's about missed opportunities right if someone had the ability

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or opportunity to do something

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but didn't we'll use this as well for example she could have won the race

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if she hadn't gotten injured

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or you could have helped you could have asked me for help right

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if you were confused didn't know what to do you could

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have asked me for help yeah we do this a lot right when something goes wrong after the fact, we will sometimes think about like,

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what could have happened that would have improved the situation.

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And we might say that to someone like, you could have done this, you could have done that.

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Sometimes that's not the advice we want to get, what we could have done differently.

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I know, what a bummer, right?

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Sometimes we should avoid telling people what they could have done.

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Right, right, right, right.

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It can be, because you can't, at that point, you can't do much about it, right?

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Just for the future, right?

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Exactly.

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Yeah.

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Aubrey, how is, should have different.

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Yeah, this is similar, but this is used to talk about something that was the right thing to do, but didn't happen.

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It often expresses regret or criticism.

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So the difference here really is could have doesn't have that implication of that was the right thing to do.

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It's sort of just like a possibility, whereas should have means like this is what should have happened.

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Yeah.

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Like I said, I should have replied to some emails before I left for vacation right

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but I didn't right these this thing should have happened um

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I should have gone to bed earlier right I stayed up too late are you someone

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that stays up late watching Netflix Aubrey sometimes not usually I'm

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more of an early you know early to bed early to rise

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but every now and then sometimes on weekends I will

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and then the next morning

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if I have something early I'll say this oh I should

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have gone to bed earlier you feel the results right yeah or we should have left earlier, right?

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Maybe something happens, something goes wrong.

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You're like, hmm, we should have left an hour ago and we wouldn't have had to deal with this.

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Yes.

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There's always a moment in a party or if you're at a party

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or something or you're out and you know it's the right time to leave, but then sometimes you override your intuition.

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Do you ever do that?

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Is it, oh no, we should stay a little longer and like your partner opens and be another drink and you're like, ah, then you know later.

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I should have listened to that little voice in my head that knew better.

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It's so true.

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There's always a moment of clarity.

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Oh, so funny.

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All right.

166

Hey, quick question.

167

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Okay, Aubrey, we're moving on to must have.

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Tell us about this one.

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Yeah, this is a little different.

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This is when you are almost certain that something happened in the past because of some kind of evidence, right?

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So this isn't so much about like what could have happened, what should have happened.

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This is you have some more concrete evidence to able to say like it must have been

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that way this must have been the case yeah

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so for example she must have forgotten our meeting now the evidence is

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that you knew that you had a meeting scheduled

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and she didn't show up so we're assuming

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that this is definitely what happened she forgot the meeting right yeah it's interesting this really means

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that we have some kind of concrete reason to think

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that otherwise we could be saying she could have been she

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could have gotten stuck in traffic she could have woken up late

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but for some reason something's happened to give us some kind

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of evidence oh she must have forgotten all about it yes yes exactly

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or he must have left already because his car isn't there

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or isn't here yeah

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so we have evidence right well his car's gone he must have left already

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so it's when we see

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that evidence we're not going to say he could have left

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his car's not here we wouldn't say he should have left

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right this is where we have some kind of evidence

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so that's when we would say this must be the case he must have left yeah

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so quite different from the other two

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so we're going to see how they all come together into

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a little conversation aubry what is going on in this role play yeah

200

so we are friends who were supposed to see each other at a birthday party last night

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but didn't so let's see what happened i'll start us out.

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All right.

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Where were you last night?

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We missed you at Jake's birthday party.

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Oh no, was that last night?

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I must have mixed up the dates.

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I should have called you when I saw you weren't there.

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I just assumed you couldn't make it.

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If I had remembered, I could have at least let Jake know I wouldn't be there.

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Oh, that's not good.

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Totally missed the party.

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Right.

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But this happens to all of us, right?

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This just happens to me.

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I'll mix up dates, I'll mix up times and you just miss it.

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And this is when we need these modals and you can see how, depending on what you're trying to say, it's, you have to choose the right one or you could cause confusion.

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Oh, for sure. For sure.

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Great.

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Let's go back through it.

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So what did we choose in terms of the first modal?

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I, you said, where were you last night?

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We missed you at Jake's birthday party.

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And I said, oh no, was that last night?

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I must have mixed up the dates.

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Why did I use must there?

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Yeah, this is interesting.

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So this is your reason, right?

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This is the evidence.

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You definitely could have say, I think I mixed up the dates or I mixed up the dates.

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We use must have here to sort of separate ourselves from the blame of something happening.

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I've noticed this and this is an interesting, very subtle nuance of English, right?

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Oh, I must have mixed up the dates.

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Interesting.

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Yeah.

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It's very subtle, right?

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But it is kind of separating yourself from the blame.

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I like that.

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I like that.

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Right.

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Just highlighting that it was a mistake.

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It was not intentional.

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It was an accident.

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Right.

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Like something was out of your control.

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I must have messed up, right?

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Mm -hmm.

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And then you said, I should have called you when I saw you weren't there, right I should have okay this is a regret right exactly

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right this is the right thing to have done I didn't do it

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because I didn't have all the information I just assumed you

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couldn't make it I didn't know you had forgotten had mixed up the date

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so now in hindsight I'm saying what I should have done

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oh I should have called you yes yes for sure

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and then I said

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if I had remembered I could have at least let Jake

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know I wouldn't be there right now I'm feeling bad

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that could so I had an option to let jake know

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that i wouldn't be there right this one is maybe the trickiest one to know

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when to use it right this is

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that past possibility it's dependent on you having more information like

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if i had known i was i was had the dates

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wrong i could have let him know something right this is

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more like this is not based on any evidence of what should have happened

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or what must have been the truth this is this very much more of like oh

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if things were different if these if I had known more, then things could have been different.

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Yes, completely.

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Love it.

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Great episode today.

268

Real clear grammar episode.

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These are building blocks for important language when you get to the B2C1 level, guys.

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So do go out and try to use these as much as you can, right?

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Absolutely, right.

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And really be observant when you hear other people using these modals.

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Think about the context.

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Why were they choosing one or the other? they'll become more

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and more familiar so that they're just naturally coming up and you're able to use them correctly.

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Love it guys.

277

Go on over and check out 2704 as your next step.

278

This is the title of this episode is, are you giving fluency?

279

We talked about this.

280

It's giving phrase, right?

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Which is fun.

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New slang has become very popular.

283

Definitely scroll up and check that one out if you missed it.

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Yeah.

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We had fun creating that episode, so I'm sure you'll have fun listening to it, guys.

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Go check it out.

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Aubrey, what is your final takeaway on this episode today?

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Where should we leave our listeners?

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I feel like there are so many connection moments that are possible

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and connections that can be hurt if we use the wrong modal, right?

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We talked about this a few times throughout the episode.

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You don't always want to tell someone what they should have done, right?

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Or what could have been different because sometimes it doesn't help if we can't go back and change it, right?

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Well, that's actually a really good point

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that we didn't talk about quite as much in the episode

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but going and reprimanding something someone by saying oh you should have done this you should have done

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that be careful there right you know i we've all been in

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that situation where someone tells us that

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and we're like thanks that's really helpful now

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that i can't go back yeah thanks but no thanks yeah exactly

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so play around with your words right it's okay to offer feedback

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and let people know what um like what what would have

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been better to have been to have done right it's important

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about ourselves about ourselves as well i should have done this i could have done

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that but to say it for someone else is usually not constructive it's not very helpful yeah right we can

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so we can get a little bit more wordsmithy here the way we choose our words especially at work right

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if you're in a management position you have to offer feedback

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you have to let people know the correct way to do things

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but we can choose words differently right instead saying like going forward let's do this next time it's

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so much better than that you should have done this

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which is much more blunt exactly you got it great episode

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today we'll see you very soon all right thanks lindsey see you next time okay take care bye

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “2705 - Could Have, Should Have or Must Have?”. This video has 312 sentences and 3001 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:49. The speaker talks fast, about 203 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 50 of its 312 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
grammar noun	/ˈɡɹæm.ə(ɹ)/	A system of rules and principles for the structure of a language, or of languages in general.
helpful adjective	/ˈhɛlp.fl̩/	Furnishing help; giving aid; useful.
regret verb	/ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/	To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
feedback noun	/ˈfiːdˌbæk/	Critical assessment of a process or activity or of their results.
jake noun	/dʒeɪk/	A juvenile male turkey.
listener noun	/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/	Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.
naturally adverb	/ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/	In a natural manner.
concrete adjective	/ˌkɑnˈkɹit/	Real, actual, tangible.
whereas	/(h)wɛɹˈæz/	In contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.
vacation noun	/veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/	An extended trip or journey away from home for rest or pleasure.
differently adverb	/ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/	In a different way.
subtle adjective	/ˈsʌtəl/	Of an action or movement: very delicate or slight, and thus barely noticeable; not obvious; inconspicuous, unintrusive.
tricky adjective	/ˈtɹɪk.i/	Hard to deal with, complicated.
optional adjective	/ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/	Not compulsory; left to personal choice; elective.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
mix up verb	To mix or blend thoroughly and completely.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
stay up verb	To remain awake; to not go to bed.
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up verb	To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.
end up verb	To bring to a conclusion.
go out verb	To leave, especially a building.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We're like, you know what?
Do you ever do that?
Where were you last night?
I, you said, where were you last night?
Why did I use must there?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if I have something early I'll say
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have not returned · We've had · has gone
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be really lined · was had · is not based

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 101 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, we're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/, optional /ˈɑp.ʃə.nəl/, confusion /kənˈfjuːʒən/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/
Long words — get the stress right: naturally /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, apologize /əˈpɑləˌd͡ʒaɪz/, voluntary /ˈvɑ.lənˌt(ɛ)ɹi/, intentional /ɪnˈtɛnʃənəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like depend, grammar, helpful.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 2705 - Could Have, Should Have or Must Have? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?