What should be versus what is

What should I wear? They should make that illegal. There should be a law against that. People should worry more about global warming. Here are some examples:. Another use of should also similar to ought to is to indicate a kind of obligation, duty or correctness, often when criticizing another person:. We use should to indicate that we think something is probable we expect it to happen :. We sometimes use should instead of would for the first person singular and plural I, we of some conditionals:.

Until you meet those three basic requirements you have no frame of reference to base your changes on, so anything you do is pretty much a shot in the dark. I wish someone had told me this when I was younger, but sadly I had to get it dropped on my head in a song for it to stick: a movement in any random direction is not progression. And all these egotistical people neglect to consider the more important factors: are their goals practical?

Are they putting in enough work? And, above all, are they being honest with themselves? Such a horrible mindset to have. Yeah, of course there are times when things may not be ideal, but there is always something on THEIR end that they can do more to, if not turn it around completely, at least make it a lot better.

SomethingDark SomethingDark 1, 1 1 gold badge 13 13 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. Add a comment. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name. Email Required, but never shown. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. Related Hot Network Questions. With each of these words, more information is usually given in conversation to tell us about other possibilities or information about an event that makes it more or less likely to happen.

Just remember that could is used to talk about something that can happen, would is used to talk about something that will happen in an imagined situation, and should is used to talk about something that ought to happen or must happen. Learner's Dictionary mobile search. Learner's Dictionary. Ask the Editor. Serenity Carr , Assistant Editor. How to Use "Could," "Would," and "Should".

What is the difference between could , would , and should? Adam could visit us on Monday. This tells us that it is possible Adam will visit on Monday, maybe he can visit us, but maybe he has other options, too.

Visiting us is one possibility. Adam would visit us on Monday. This tells us that we can imagine a situation in which Adam wants to visit us on Monday, but maybe it is not actually possible.

Adam is willing to visit us, under the right conditions or if he can.