Could, Would, and Should

Hi. I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Welcome to this sample grammar lesson from the course The Fearless Fluency Club. Make sure that you watch the conversation, vocabulary, and pronunciation video in this lesson set.

If you’d like to get lessons like this every month that you can download and listen to wherever you’d like and also with your Fearless Fluency Club speaking partner, click on the link up here or in the description below.

Let’s get started. In this month’s lesson set about travel, I’m going to help you learn how to use three commonly used English words that English learners have a lot of difficulty with. They are could, would and should.

In this video, I’m going to explain how to use each one, and then after my quick explanation, I’m going to show you some video clips from the conversation with my sister.

We used this a lot in our conversation together, so I’m going to show you examples of that so that you can see it real life. Let’s get started. The first word we’re going to talk about is could.

There are three different ways to use could. The first one is like a polite request or some polite advice.

Let’s imagine that your friend is new to your city and your friend wants to see some beautiful nature. You know a lot of places because you have lived here for a long time.

You tell your friend, “Oh, you could go to the mountains. You could go to the botanical garden. You could go to the park.” This is a polite suggestion. Some polite advice to give to your friend. Let’s watch some examples of this from the conversation.

You mean like dances or concerts or what kind of events did you go to? Yeah, concerts. A lot of concerts in Argentina mainly and then in South Korea. South Korea als has fantastic public transportation.

It just like stops at a certain times, so you have to know . Argentinian transportation went longer?

It’s all night. It’s not a big deal if you don’t go back and live in your hometown. Yeah. You can go travel. We can live anywhere. Exactly.

Because I know some people . Some people I’ve talked to . The second way to use could is simply like can in the past.

Can talks about an ability to do something. For example, you might say, “Before I watched Vanessa’s video about grammar, I couldn’t understand how to use could. But now I now can understand it.”

Before I couldn’t understand it, but now I can. Let’s watch some examples of this from the video.

And you probably learned some of the language, like enough to read, or enough to minimally communicate.

Right. Yeah. I could read and also communicate with the students, communicate with my coworkers. Being able to kind of connect with him stronger, just because we’ve been everywhere together.

Yeah, you guys have a closer bond because you’ve been through a lot. Right. The third way to use could is for some possibility in the future.

Let’s say that you look outside and the sky is really dark. The clouds are dark, the sky is almost black. You could say, “I think it could rain today.” This is a possibility. Probably it’s a high possibility in the future.

It could rain today. Now, just to let you know, you could also use the word might in this situation. It might rain today. You’re just showing that it’s a possibility. It could rain today. I could go to Barcelona for vacation, or I could go to Italy. Here are some possibilities for the future.

Let’s watch some examples from the conversation. Because you’re preparing for it. You know you’re going to another country.

You’re going to feel discomfort of some sort. Yeah. And you’re expecting to feel it, so I think you prepare more for this culture shock. But coming back to the U.S., if you didn’t want to speak English, you could speak Spanish together.

Right. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that. So when we came back to the U.S. . . oh, fun and really enjoyable. Every day there’s something different and new, and then coming back to the U.S., a big thing was, is everyday just going to be like a daily routine? Am I just going to feel like there’s not new surprises around every corner? You know, when you’re . . and maybe that’s something that could happen in the future.

I don’t know. I would like to have a garden or like to live . it’s maybe more idealistic, but at the moment it’s not . The second word we’re going to talk about today is would. Would. This is the same pronunciation as a tree is made of wood. A tree is made of wood. W-O-O-D.

So let’s talk about three different ways that you can use would. The first way to use is would is similar to the first way to use could that we talked about. It is a polite request, or some polite advice.

Maybe at your job, you might ask someone, “Would you help me? Would you explain this to my friend because I don’t know how to explain it? Would you?” You could also say, “Could you.” Both of those are polite and professional. So I want to let you know that we often use would in these professional situations.

Let’s take a look at a couple clips from the conversation so that you can see this in real life. How would you describe reverse culture shock? Reverse culture shock is when you .

Do you think that reverse culture shock is avoidable? Is it possible to make it any better than it is? Mm-hmm (affirmative). The second way to use is would is will, in the past. So maybe .

let’s imagine that you lived in New York for one year, and when you go back to your home country, your friend asks you, “What did you do every morning in New York?”

You might say, “Well, I would wake up at 6:00 AM and then I would take the bus to my English class and then I would have English class for two hours and then .” so you’re using would as will in the past. Let’s see some examples from the conversation.

I thought, “Everyone’s listening to me.” Yeah, that’s a really weird feeling. And so we were speaking Spanish everywhere. But then again, also, there’s a lot of people who speak Spanish.

And I kept feeling like people were listening to me, or watching me strangely because in Korea, people would look at me at least. At least notice there’s a foreigner- Because you’re not Korean.

Right. The third way to use would is for hypothetical situations. Hypothetical means something that imaginary. It’s not impossible . it might be impossible, but it’s something imaginary.

For example, you’re not the president of your country . at least I don’t think so, so you might say, “If I were president of my country, I would change the education system.

I would do this. I would do that.” Because at the moment, you’re not the president, this is an imaginary situation. Typically, these situations use the word if. If I were a boy, I would be very different.

If my dog were bigger, it wouldn’t be very good for my apartment. We often use this with if, but not all the time. So let’s see some example from the real conversation with my sister.

When you are the only person who’s American, or from your country, in an area maybe you’d be more likely to seclude yourself. . about this, and if I said, “Oh I went here and I went there and this was really cool, and oh, in Germany it’s like this,” they’d just be like, “Oh, that’s really cool,” and maybe they thought it was cool but they just can’t get it. Change the topic. Right.

There are so many options. I realized this is why we have a problem with obesity, maybe. I mean, it could be the fact that you have a hundred different types of cereal to choose from or .

I think that’s like a sign of reverse culture shock, is being overwhelmed by something you thought would be normal. Like, going to the grocery store. Yeah. Something really normal.

Something you do all the time. . a new lifestyle. Like, you got some city life. Really. Right. I think that would be very difficult, to go from living in Korea to going and living in suburbia. We have to drive twenty minutes- The third word that we’re going to talk about today is should. Should. Should is the clearest word because there’s really only one way that we use this, and that is to give some polite advice. You should do something.

I shouldn’t do something. For example, maybe if your friend is going to come to visit your country, maybe your friend is American and they’re going to come visit your country and they’re worried. “

Oh, I’m worried. I don’t speak the local language. I only speak English,” because your friend is American. “I only speak English,” and you might say, “Oh, you shouldn’t worry about that.

People here can understand English. Don’t worry.” This is a great way to help someone feel better. You shouldn’t worry. Or we could add the word probably. Probably. If you want to tell someone what to do, this is a way to make it more polite. You should probably clean your office before the weekend.

You should probably go to the store because our family’s coming over tonight for dinner and we don’t have any food. So let’s see some example from the conversation about how to use this. When we came back to the U.S., I didn’t think about that at all. It’s just like, oh, it’s just the U.S. it’s my home country.

Exactly. Right. So it’s definitely real. It’s definitely there, and it’s something that you don’t think about. What helped was going to events that weren’t for foreigners. I went to those types of things where you know you’re going to meet locals who live there and then just connecting with them . . I don’t understand either.

Yeah, it’s just like a small thing that shouldn’t bother me, and I feel like I’m a pretty, generally easy-going or, like, little things don’t bother me like that.

I think I realized I like living in bigger cities and it’s going to be really difficult to go and live in the countryside, or live in a little neighborhood way far away from everything. Now that we’ve talked about these three words, could, would, and should, I want you to feel comfortable using them yourself.