Micro-listening #17

Micro-listenings | C1

…they feel like they should have thought of it…

Should have + past participle is a very useful and important past modal, which is usually used to criticise or evaluate the past.

For example, if you say “I should have gone to bed earlier”, it means that you didn’t go to bed early enough and that this was a mistake.

If you say “I shouldn’t have gone to bed so late”, it means that you did go to bed too late, and that this was a mistake.

Notice the relaxed, quick pronunciation in the second usage of this structure – this is the normal pronunciation.