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Use should have + past participle to make judgments about the past.

Here you will find a list of sentences using this pattern. Of course you can convert them into the negative form, shouldn’t have.

I know I should have called, but I was tied up at a meeting.

I’m exhausted. I shouldn’t have gone to bed so late.

I should have listened a long time ago. . . .

I should have invited my husband to join me…

I should have been happy.

I should have sought medical advice.

I should have had a happy childhood.

I should have done a better job.

I should have acted treacherously.

I should have realized the danger at the beginning.

I should have perished in my affliction.

I should have written to my own parents.

I should have finished college.

I should have bought that coat.

I should have left.

I should have done it sooner.

I should have waited.

I should have killed you.

A famous quotation:

It is fitting that we should have buried the Unknown Prime Minister [Bonar Law] by the side of the Unknown Soldier.

In Robert Blake The Unknown Prime Minister (1955) p. 531

Let me go to the point of this by giving you an example.

1. The Past Perfect. I had left (had+ Past participle)
2. Simple Past Tense. You called me

Now, we can build a long sentence with these two forms.

“By the time you called me, I had already left”

We use this combination to show which of two events happened first.

Important:

We use…

The simple past tense

When we want to describe events that occurred at a specific time in the past.

The Past Perfect

When we want to show that something happened before a specific time in the past.

Can you combine these two forms with “By the time”?

Let me have your inquiries

Present perfect & past simple; have & have got; irregular verbs.

1) BrE sometimes uses the present perfect while AmE use the past simple:

BrE: Have you eaten all those biscuits?
AmE: Did you eat all those cookies?

BrE: Have you ever seen the film, Casablanca?
AmE: Did you ever see the movie, Casablanca?

2) BrE uses have got while AmE tends to use have:

BrE: Have you got new training shoes?
AmE: Do you have new sneakers?

BrE: I’ve got some wellington boots you can borrow.
AmE: I have some rubbers you can borrow.

BrE: I haven’t got time for a holiday this year.
AmE: I don’t have time for a vacation this year.

3) There are some differences in irregular verbs between AmE and BrE. Two major differences are:

BrE: dive - dived - dived She dived into the pool.
AmE: dive - dove - dived She dove into the pool.

BrE: get - got - got The baby has got a lot bigger.
AmE: get - got -gotten The baby has gotten a lot bigger.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnZJpPM9YxM]

Say and tell have similar meanings. They both mean to communicate verbally with someone. But we often use them in different ways,The simple way to think of say and tell is:

• You say something
• You tell someone something

But, of course, it is not always so easy. Here are a few rules to help you.

Personal object
We usually follow tell with a personal object (the person that we are speaking to). We usually use say without a personal object:

• She told me that she loved John.
• She said that she loved John.
• He told everybody that he had to leave.
• He said that he had to leave.

Say “to someone”
With say, we sometimes use “to someone”:

• He said to me that he was tired.
• Sara said to Ram that he had done very well.
• Anthony said to her, “I hope you come soon.”
• “I’d like to sleep,” she said to him quietly.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

 :)