Do you know how to express regrets in English?

I'll explain it in just a moment.

Hi, my name is Alicia and this is Three-Step English by English Class 101.com.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to express regrets through a quick conversation.

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 mischances 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 have.

You can only do this with the modal should have phrase.

In other uses, like you should have three apples left, you cannot 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.

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