Past Modals in English: Should have, could have, would have + past participle

Hi there,

Watch the video in this link and read the notes about past modals.

Here is another link with more examples:

One more link:

To help you practice the past participles look below:

Here is a link with a list of irregular verbs with present, past and past participle:

We had our Wednesday zoom meeting tonight and we came up with some examples of this grammar:

What would you have done this summer if the virus had not occurred ?

Joao would have gone to the Cannes film festival in France.
Akin would have gone back to Japan.
Karen would have traveled to Hawaii.
Cindy would have registered for a summer school class at CCSF.

Here is another question we thought about:

What could the US have done sooner to prepare for the covid-19 virus ?

They should have started the quarantine sooner.
They should have been prepared to buy more medical equipment.
They should have researched the vaccine.
They should have collected blood samples of people with the virus.

What could we have done differently ?

We could have bought more masks for doctors and nurses...and more ventilators.

We will be studying these kinds of past modals with should have, could have, and would have + past participle in Unit 4 to talk about lost opportunities.

Try the following exercises to practice this grammar:

Grammar exercise: past modals

Perfect English Grammar: past modals