Welcome to my English Stuff Blog

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