MODALS OF LOST
OPPORTUNITY
SHOULD – COULD – WOULD +
PERFECT INFINITIVE
MODALS OF LOST OPPORTUNITY
• When talking about the past we use all
modals with the PERFECT SIMPLE INFINITIVE
or PERFECT CONTINUOUS INFINITIVE
• Should + have watched
• Would + have gone
• Could + have been playing
• Must + have been listening
• Might + have been built (passive voice)
REMEMBER:
 when referring to the present/future
time we use MODAL + base form (bare
infinitive) of the main verb .
You should go to the doctor’s .
(now or in the near future).
(I advise you to do this)
 But when referring to the past time we
use:
You should have gone to the doctor’s,
yesterday.
(it was the best thing to do in the circumstances
but you didn’t go)
Because modals used in the past are
followed by;
• have + past participle
(PERFECT SIMPLE INFINITIVE)
• have been + ‘ing’
(PERFECT CONTINUOUS INFINITIVE)
• have been + past participle
(PASSIVE )
they are often taught as:
SHOULD HAVE/WOULD HAVE/COULD
HAVE etc. + past participle.
SHOULD HAVE
-
When we use ‘should have’ we want to
express that a decision we took, or an action
we made in the past was wrong and that now
we think a different decision or action would
have been better.
It often expresses the fact that we now
regret having made that decision or regret
what we did.
 I should have listened to my mother when
she told me not to marry John.
(but I did marry him and now I regret it. – I lost the
opportunity of making a different decision)
 The Emergency Exits should have opened
automatically but for some reason they
didn’t and fifteen people were killed.
 The accident was my fault. I shouldn’t
have been driving so fast. (I regret it now)
 Mary shouldn’t have read the text
messages John sent me.
(But she did. She made the wrong decision. It wasn’t a good
idea.)
The box shouldn’t have been thrown
away. There was some money hidden in
it.
We did the wrong thing. We made a bad decision. If we had the
opportunity to go back in time we would not throw it away. We
regret throwing it away.
I should never have convinced. Mary to
buy that dress. It was far too
expensive.
I regret what I did. If I could re-live the situation I would not
try to convince her. I wish I hadn’t convinced her to buy it.
COULD HAVE -
At sometime in the past we had
the possibility of making a
decision or doing something, but
we lost the opportunity. We
either did nothing, or decided
to do something else.
 Why did you stay in a hotel? You could
have stayed at Mary’s. I know she asked
you to.
(this was possible, but you didn’t take
the opportunity you were offered)
 You could have asked me before you
bought those tickets. I can’t come with you
on Friday.
(It was a bad idea to buy them without taking the opportunity
. of asking me previously)
 All the passengers could have been saved
if the emergency services had arrived
quicker.
.
(the opportunity to save lives was lost because of the late . .
arrival of emergency services)
WOULD HAVE We cannot change the past, but we can
imagine a different past. To do this we
use ‘would have’.
If there had been the possibility/
opportunity, we imagine that actions or
decisions would have been different.
We are expressing an imaginary/
hypothetical scenario.
I would have loved to meet your
mother but, unfortunately, I wasn’t in
town when she visited Stratford.
(If circumstances had been different I would have enjoyed
meeting her. I lost the opportunity of meeting her because I
wasn’t in town.)
I wouldn’t have opened the window if I
had known she had a high temperature.
(but I didn’t know, otherwise I would not have done what I did)
I would have phoned you to let you
know I would be late but there wasn’t
any credit left on my SIM card.
(the truth is I didn’t phone you. I wanted to, but I couldn’t.)
I would have been driving up London
Road exactly at the time of the
explosion if I hadn’t stopped to buy
some petrol.
I would have (certainly)/could have
(possibly) been killed.
(I am imagining a hypothetical scenario)
MODALS OF LOST OPPORTUNITY
REMEMBER
SHOULD – can also be used to express
prohibition (should never), obligation, to
give advice
WOULD – can be used to express a
request, possibility, speculation, to give
advice (if I were you . . )
COULD – can also be used to express
ability, capability, permission, possibility,
deduction, to make a request or to make
a suggestion
Exercises - intermediate/upper-intermediate level
Choose either ‘would have, could have, should have + past participle’
to complete these sentences using, when necessary, the ‘ing’ form,
the passive voice or the negative form.
1) I ______________________ (buy) the red dress if I had had
enough money.
(it was my intention)
2) The town centre ___________________ _______ (protect)
from flooding by the new flood barriers but they were too low.
(possessive voice)
3) I ___________________________________ (stay) with
John and Mary, but I preferred not to because they have got a cat
and I am allergic to cats.
4) You _________________________ (tell) me that you needed .
. £400. I ________________ (certainly/lend) you the money.
5) I _________________________ (not/ask) John to come to
Spain with us if I had known that he had just lost his job.
6) I ______________________________ (not/drive) at 120
m.p.h. I was fined £300 by the police when they stopped me on
the motorway.
7a) John _________________ (steal) the money from my purse. . .
. He was at work at the time it was stolen.
7b) I _______________________ (take) my purse with me when I
.
left the house. If I had, it _____________________ (steal)
(possessive voice)
8) I __________________ (order) the book
for you when I ordered mine.
9) She ___________________ (tell) him that
. she was married.
10) The accident ______________________
.
(avoid). There were three ‘danger’
warnings.
(possessive voice)
11) If he had driven carefully, he ________
____________________ (have) the accident.
KEY
1.would have bought
2. should have been
3. could have stayed
4. should have told/would certainly have lent
5. wouldn’t have asked
6. shouldn’t have been driving
7a) couldn’t have stolen.
7b) should have taken/wouldn’t have been stolen
8. could have ordered
9. should have told (the right thing to do) or /could have told (she had the opportunity)
10. should have been (certainty)/could have been(possibility) avoided
11. wouldn’t have had
A ‘modals of lost opportunity’ summary worksheet with questions and
key is also available on isl.collective.com
Members – lesleymisano – lesleymisano’s resources