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This
question from Ruby:
What
do you mean by saying “In short, aside from those who should’ve known
better, the older are generally wiser”? I have never seen “should’ve”
before. Is it widely used in English-speaking countries?
Answer:
Am I
getting you right, Ruby? Are you saying you have never seen “should’ve”
before? You should have seen it as early as during middle school – the
perfect infinitive should be in all English grammar books.
I
would have understood you better if you had just told me bluntly that your
teachers at school had not done their job properly.
Or
you could have told me that teachers had nothing to do with it – It was
just you dozing off a few times too often during class. “Had I listened to
the teacher more closely,” you could have said. “I would
have understood the perfect infinitive structure a little bit
better.”
You
see, “would have” is used in reference to an event in the past which did
not or may not have taken place.
However,
middle school days are long gone by. I’m not going to second-guess you,
your school teachers or our education system as a whole. We’d better learn
to let bygones be bygones because life is not about what should have been,
but what is.
If
life were about what should have been, all old men should be wise and all
the world’s problems should have been solved. An alternative source of
energy should have been found, George Bush would not have found it
necessary to go to war with Iraq on false pretexts. Lives would have been
spared.
And
the Japanese would never have done all the terrible things they
did.
Should’ve,
would’ve, could’ve, or, colloquially, shoulda, woulda, coulda. None of
that is real. None of that matters.
What
matters is now. And without going over grammar books, I’m going to make it
difficult for you to say in future that you have not seen “should-have”
before.
Without
further ado are a few examples of “should have”, “would have”, “can or
could have”, “may or might have”.
l
Had my son been born in his stead, he may have ended up doing the same.
Had I myself been born into the political and ethical chaos that is
the Palestinians' daily reality, I would certainly have tried to
kill and hurt the occupier; had I not, I would have betrayed my essence as
a free man.
(The
Guardian, August 7, 2002)
……
l
On
Sept. 1, Kerry began his intense criticism of Bush's decisions in the Iraq
war, saying "I would've done
almost everything differently." A few days later, I provided the Kerry
campaign with a list of 22 possible questions based entirely on Bush's
actions leading up to the war and how Kerry might have responded in the
same situations. The senator and his campaign have since decided not to do
the interview, though his advisers say Kerry would have strong and compelling
answers.
(Washington
Post, October 24, 2004)
……
l
I
will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of his father,
which latter had it of his father, this last having in like manner had it
of his father- and so on, back and still back, three hundred years and
more, the fathers transmitting it to the sons and so preserving it. It may
be history, it may be only legend, a tradition. It may have happened, it may not have
happened: but it could have happened. It may be that the wise and the
learned believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and
the simple loved it and credited it.
(Mark
Twain, The Prince and the Pauper)
……
l
I
have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves – this
critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted
my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life
cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of
kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective
world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific
endeavors, life would have
seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts – possessions,
outward success, luxury – have always seemed to me
contemptible.
(Albert
Einstein, The World As I See It)
……
l
Finally,
this from the lyrics of a song by Rhythm and Blues artist Brian
McKnight:
I
coulda done this, I coulda done that
But I
know I can't go back
'Cause
now it's just too late
I'm
sayin' shoulda woulda coulda,
yeah
I can
tell by the look on your face
You
ain't tryin' to hear what I'm sayin'
Maybe
you done heard all of this before
…
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