6.2 Past Regrets or Mistakes—Should Have

3. A: Do you remember the story we read about Lewis and Clark?

B: No. I absent that day.

A: You weren’t absent. And we talked about it for almost a week.

B: Oh. Then I much attention.

A: You

4. A: Lincoln’s speech was very short. more attention in class. It was an interesting topic.

B: He it very fast.

A: I don’t think he wrote it fast. I think he chose his words very carefully.

B: Edward Everett’s speech was two hours long. The audience bored.

5. A: I rented the movie Lincoln, but it was very hard for me to understand.

B: You subtitles.

A: I don’t know how to do that.

B: You me. I do it all the time.

EXAMPLES “I should have given a longer speech,” thought Lincoln.

I think Everett’s speech was too long. He shouldn’t have talked for such a long time.

EXPLANATION We use should have + the past participle to comment on mistakes or regrets or to rethink the advisability of a past decision. We use should not have + the past participle to say that a past action was not advisable.

EXERCISE 2 Fill in the blanks to express past advisability. Use context clues to help you.

1. A: There was a great documentary on TV about Lincoln last night. You should have seen it.

B: I didn’t know about it. You should me about it.

A: I did tell you. You sometimes write things in your calendar. You should

it down.

2. A: I rented the movie Lincoln, and I thought it was boring. I only watched about 20 minutes of it.

B: You should the whole thing. It was very good.

A: I don’t know much about American history. I never paid much attention to it in school.

B: History’s very important. You should more attention.