Home of English Grammar

Free Guide (Updated for 2022)

  • Home
  • Download Lessons
  • Grammar Rules
  • Online Exercises
  • Online Tools
    • Grammar Checker
    • Word Counter
  • Guides
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Verbs / Uses of Should

Uses of Should

December 10, 2010 - pdf

Indirect speech

Should is the past tense of shall in indirect speech.

  • The officer said, ‘The scoundrel shall be given a good beating.’
  • The officer said that the scoundrel should be given a good beating.

Duty and obligation

Should can be used with pronouns of all the three persons to talk about duty and obligation.

  • We should help the poor and the needy.
  • We should not lie.
  • We should all work for the common good.
  • You should pay the fees in time.

Conditional clauses

Should can be used in conditional clauses expressing possibilities, suppositions etc.

  • If she should come, ask her to wait.
  • Should it rain, we will cancel the trip.

Should is often used in main clauses which are preceded or followed by a clause expressing unreal conditions.

  • If I were you, I should accept this offer.
  • No Sam, I shouldn’t do that, If I were you.

Note that this kind of sentence is often used to give polite advice or gentle admonition.

Possibility

Should is often used to express possibility or likelihood.

  • I should be able to finish this work in time.
  • You should be able to beat him.

After lest

Should is the only auxiliary verb that can be used after lest.

  • Watch and pray lest you should fall into temptation.

Should and shall

Should expresses less possibility than shall.

  • I shall be able to meet Peter.
  • I should be able to meet Peter.

Here the first sentence expresses a greater possibility of the event – meeting Peter – taking place.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
1,127,749 
201,073 

Check Your Grammar

GrammarCheck.net - Try online
Hint → Bookmark GrammarCheck for future use.

Latest Exercises

  • Will vs. Would June 26, 2022
  • See vs. Look vs. Watch June 23, 2022
  • General Grammar Exercise June 21, 2022
  • Tenses Gap Filling Exercise June 21, 2022
  • Gap Filling Exercise June 20, 2022
  • Subject Verb Agreement Exercise June 20, 2022
  • Prepositions Exercise June 19, 2022
  • Gap Filling Exercise June 19, 2022
  • Tenses Exercise June 18, 2022

Topics

  • Adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Business Writing
  • Commas
  • Conjunctions
  • Creative Writing
  • Difference
  • Essay Writing
  • Exercises
  • Learning
  • Lessons
  • Nouns
  • Prepositions
  • Pronouns
  • Proofreading
  • Punctuation
  • Quiz
  • Spelling
  • Style Guide
  • Teaching
  • Terms
  • Verbs
  • Words
  • Writing

Quiz

  • Can you correct these 14 basic grammar mistakes?
  • What kind of writer are you?

Copyright © 2022 · EnglishGrammar.org
Disclaimer · Privacy Policy · Sitemap