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Modal Auxiliary Verbs - Expectations
Modal Auxiliary Verbs - Expectations
“She should be here by now.”
“They should be arriving at any minute.”
“I think this book should be interesting.”
We can also follow should with other verbs to express expectation, but this is less common. For instance:
If we use the negative of should (should not or shouldn’t), it implies a mistake or error, especially when we
use it with a future time expression. For example:
“She shouldn’t be here yet.”
“He shouldn’t be arriving for another hour.”
We normally do not use should not to refer to expected future actions like we do in the affirmative; it
generally refers to something that just happened (in the present or immediate past).
“He should be here at 10 AM.”
“He is meant to be here at 10 AM.”
“He is supposed to be here at 10 AM.”
We can also use these three variations interchangeably when asking the reason why something is the
case. For instance:
However, when we are expressing an obligation or duty, we can only replace should with be supposed
to or be meant to when it is in the negative. For instance:
Be supposed to and be meant to are also used to express general beliefs, which is not a way we can use
the modal verb should.
For example:
We can see how the meaning changes significantly when should is used instead.