Should i not have done that

Ask a Question. Shouldn't Have Done? Hello , My sentence is: I shouldn't have done that. I want to make it a question, but I cannot.

I searched google to find a question sentence includes that I tried many alternatives , but couldn't find anything. I started to think that maybe we cannot form a question sentence from that, it seemed a bit weird too? Hope, I am clear. And this situation is also valid for "must have done" or "musn't have done" Thanks for helping me! Should I have done that? The word then is in brackets, not parentheses. Brackets are used to clarify or add to the original sentence or quote. The word then is unnecessary in our example sentence; however, it was added for the purpose of pointing out the then clause to our readers.

The word then is not necessary in your second example sentence. Please see our post Use of Brackets for more information. Distinct from the subjunctive, which depicts an impossible or highly unlikely scenario, the conditional tense always includes a dependent if clause and conveys a possible scenario with a plausible speculative result.

Example: If I was a banker, I would know more about money. I could be a banker if I chose. In your scenario, you could become a lazy worker, though you are not one now. How different the meaning could get while comparing these two sentences from one another? If the exam had not been hard, I would have passed it.

Our post Clarifying the Conditional Tense can be helpful to you. Your first sentence is an example of a Type 3 conditional unreal past condition with probable result in the past. The second sentence as written would not be grammatical. It can be adjusted to become a grammatical Type 2 conditional sentence hypothetical condition with probable result. Can you please explain the reason for the present continuous conditional in your last example? As it is expressed in American English, one could be aware of passing or failing a test in present continuous time, even though it has not yet been graded.

In other words, one may have a growing sense that a majority of answers are correct or incorrect in the process of taking the test. It is possible that this concept of time may be implicit and understood in one language but not in another. A mixed conditional is used to convey a former time with a situation that extends into the present; it combines an unreal past or present condition with an unreal past or present result. Sentence 2 includes a hypothetical observation, not an unreal one.

I work a lot with Caribbean English speakers. The perfect conditional can be used to convey a former time with a situation that extends into the present as well. This construct is known as a mixed conditional sentence. It combines an unreal past or present condition with an unreal past or present result.

For more insight into the conditional tense, you can review our article Clarifying the Conditional Tense. Your example is a mixed conditional sentence.

Please see our post Clarifying the Conditional Tense for more information. Could you please let me know if the sentence below is correct? Is the below question correct? Background is, I am in conversation with ceo and asking him question about past and want to know the impact if we had extra sales person. A decade of questions about this topic and the past perfect tense is now rarer than ever, replaced more and more with the conditional perfect or simple past even in the UK.

I fear it is becoming archaic. Leave a Comment or Question: Cancel reply. Please ensure that your question or comment relates to the topic of the blog post. Unrelated comments may be deleted. If necessary, use the "Search" box on the right side of the page to find a post closely related to your question or comment. Your email address will not be published. More examples: Correct: If I had gotten paid, we could have traveled together.

Incorrect: If you would have asked me, I could have helped you. Correct: I wish I had known. Incorrect: I wish I would have known. Correct: I wish you had told me.

Incorrect: I wish you would have told me. Correct: We wish they had been honest. Incorrect: We wish they would have been honest. Pop Quiz Choose A or B.

I wish it would have gone differently. Pop Quiz Answers 1B. Adel Gabr says:. June 27, , at am. Jane says:. Mariela says:. August 1, , at am. August 1, , at pm. Margaret says:. August 11, , at am. August 11, , at pm. Mz says:. February 21, , at pm. May 17, , at pm.

September 22, , at pm. September 24, , at pm. Jeff says:. November 17, , at am. May 24, , at pm. Athene says:. November 22, , at pm. November 23, , at pm. Stuart Dobson says:.

December 19, , at am. December 20, , at pm. December 22, , at am. December 23, , at pm. Ahmed says:. December 3, , at am. December 6, , at pm. Behnam says:. January 3, , at am. January 4, , at pm. Faizan says:. February 2, , at am. February 3, , at pm. RichardP says:. February 10, , at pm. February 11, , at pm. Arjun says:. February 13, , at am. February 14, , at pm. Lam says:. March 30, , at am. May 7, , at pm. Taylor says:. February 15, , at am.

February 16, , at pm. February 27, , at pm. Amber says:. February 28, , at am. March 1, , at am. Matt says:. April 11, , at pm. April 14, , at am. Buffy says:. June 6, , at pm.

Maggie says:. June 7, , at pm. June 10, , at pm. Marivic says:. June 11, , at am. June 13, , at am. July 17, , at pm. July 20, , at am. Bandana says:. September 23, , at am. September 25, , at pm. David says:. November 5, , at am. November 13, , at pm. October 28, , at pm. April 15, , at am. April 17, , at am.

Gennady says:. April 20, , at am. April 22, , at pm. Ari says:. May 8, , at am. May 8, , at pm. Saifullah Memon says:. November 23, , at am. December 2, , at pm. May 21, , at pm. Omkar says:. July 2, , at am. July 5, , at pm. Shanks says:. July 15, , at am. July 17, , at am. Anjula says:.

September 1, , at am. September 3, , at pm. September 2, , at am. September 4, , at am. Robert Sklar says:. September 4, , at pm. September 6, , at pm. TANI says:. October 1, , at pm. October 3, , at pm. October 13, , at pm. October 15, , at pm. Chir0n says:.

November 8, , at pm. November 12, , at pm. January 7, , at pm. Ramesh says:. February 8, , at am. February 12, , at pm. Malik says:. March 17, , at am. March 22, , at pm. March 19, , at am. March 24, , at pm. January 26, , at pm. February 3, , at am. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

Thread starter kritika Start date Oct 19, Hi, Please explain the diffrence between: Should not have and should have not. Could not have and could have not Would not have and would have not. Please provide a single sentence. Examples: "you don't need to turn on the headlights", "you didn't need to worry".

If you say "you shouldn't have worried", then what you are saying is "worrying was a bad thing to do", and that may be a little bit rude to say. It would probably be better to say "you needn't have worried" or "you didn't need to worry". As Phil14 mentions in his comment, "you shouldn't have Dant mentions in his comment, it can sound archaic or overly polite to some, but that shouldn't stop you from using it. This is fairly confusing in that "should not do" and "need not do" are not equivalent negations of "should" and "need".

These things are the opposite of a requirement and are therefore optional. However "should not do" is much closer to a positive requirement "should" to " not do " something. In either case, "should" or "should not", there is an obligation relating to a verb. All of the above applies equally to the future perfect " should not have " and " need not have ".

We brought you some flowers to welcome you back. Nobody wanted the kittens so I drowned them in a sack. I'm sure if we had waited a little longer, we would have found homes for them.

With that said, I should add that in my experience "you should not have done" often also means that what you've done was a mistake, you've done something wrong or the speaker is mad at you. On the other hand "you need not have done" is more "gentle", it doesn't really convey that negative meaning unless of course the context has it. And I should point out that some people consider the usage of the verb need as a modal verb archaic or even incorrect, and often non-native speakers usually who learned BrE may not even understand it.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams?