In this pronunciation episode of Aussie English I teach you the contracted forms of “Should not have”, which are “Shouldn’t have”, “Shouldn’t’ve” and “Shouldn’ah”.

Pronunciation – Should not have = Shouldn’t have – shouldn’t’ve – shouldn’ah

G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today is yet again another Pronunciation episode, and like we’ve done in the recent past “Wouldn’t have” and “Couldn’t have”, today we’re going to do “Should not have” and it’s contracted forms “Shouldn’t have”, “Shouldn’t’ve” and “Shouldn’ah”.

Note: Remember “Should not have” and “Shouldn’t have” are the forms you can write. “Shouldn’t’ve” and “Shouldn’ah” are used here to show you how they are often contracted even further when speaking.

So, “Should”’s an auxiliary or modal verb used in English, and it’s similar to “Would” and “Could”. It has a few different uses in English, which I might go into more detail in another episode in the future. So, for now we’ll just go through how to pronounce the different contractions of the negative form, “Should NOT have”. So, it’s negative because “Not” is in the middle there, “Should NOT have”, “Shouldn’t have”.

So, some examples of how to use “Should not have” or how I might use “Should not have”. Say, for example, you went to a party last night and you got really drunk because you drank way too much. So, maybe you had way too much beer, maybe you mixed your drinks as well. So, you had a lot of beer, you had a lot of wine, you had a lot of spirits like vodka, whiskey, bourbon. And then you wake up today and you have the worst hangover that you’ve ever had in your life. So, you’ve got an incredibly bad headache. So, once you actually wake up the first thing you might think apart form “Ow my head! It hurts” is “I really shouldn’t have drunk so much last night.” or “I definitely shouldn’t have mixed my drinks”, and you could also think, “In fact, I probably shouldn’t have gone to the party at all”. So, it’s really that looking back and thinking about what you would’ve been better not doing. So, if you “Shouldn’t have done something” it’s that you sort of express some kind of regret and you think “It would’ve been better if I hadn’t done that thing. I shouldn’t have”.

So, another example could be that someone has gone to the Doctor’s for a specific medical condition that they have and you asked what they were up to, and they said, “I went to the doctor’s”. And then you’ve asked them why they went to the doctor’s, and although most people would probably say “Ah… you don’t want to know. It’s a little gory. It’s a little gruesome.” And we often say “The gory details” or “The gruesome details” [like] here. Um… the person’s given you everything about why they went to the doctor’s. So, they’ve explained to you all the gory details, all the gruesome details, about what their medical condition was and why they went to the doctor. And so, you could think, after they’ve told you all these really really gory and gruesome details, you could think, “Oh gross! I shouldn’t have asked.” So, “I shouldn’t have asked. If would’ve been better if I hadn’t asked you why you went to the doctor”. Ah… you could think “Ah… you shouldn’t have told me that”. So, “It was way too much information. It was very gross. You gave me all of the gory details, all of the gruesome details, about your medical condition. You really should not have told me that. You shouldn’t have told me that”. And you could also think or say, “You shouldn’t have gone into that much detail.” So, “You shouldn’t have been that explicit. You shouldn’t have described all of the things related to your medical condition because it was gross. It was gross.”

So, yeah, that’s how I would use “Should not have”, “Shouldn’t have”, “Shouldn’t’ve” or “Shouldn’ah”. So, now we’ll just go through a listen and repeat exercise guys where I will use all of the different contractions, “Should not have”, “Shouldn’t have”, “Shouldn’t’ve” and “Shouldn’ah” with the different pronouns in English. So, listen and repeat after me.

Listen and repeat:

I should not have

I shouldn’t have

I shouldn’t’ve

I shouldn’ah

You should not have

You shouldn’t have

You shouldn’t’ve

You shouldn’ah

He should not have

He shouldn’t have

He shouldn’t’ve

He shouldn’ah

She should not have

She shouldn’t have

She shouldn’t’ve

She shouldn’ah

We should not have

We shouldn’t have

We shouldn’t’ve

We shouldn’ah

They should not have

They shouldn’t have

They shouldn’t’ve

They shouldn’ah

So, yeah, go over those exercises a few times guys, and just practice the pronunciation of these different contractions. You don’t necessarily have to use them. You just need to know what they sound like and what it… the person means when they use these contractions if they’re native speakers so that you don’t have to think, “What did they say? What did they mean” and you don’t have to ask them “Can you repeat. Can you please say that again?” If they say something like “They shouldn’ah done that” you’re going to know instantly they’re trying to say “They should not have done that”. “They shouldn’ah done that”.

So, we’ll do some substitution exercises guys where I will get you to repeat the sentence that I say and then convert that sentence into a more contracted version of say, “Should not have” into “Shouldn’t have”, and that’ll be the first exercise. So, here I’m going to go through some different sentences and I’m going to say the first sentence with “Should not have” and I want you to repeat it using the contracted form “Shouldn’t have”. So, just contract the “Not” onto “Should” for “Shouldn’t have”.

Substitution exercise: Should not have – Shouldn’t have

I should not have stayed up so late last night.

I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night.

You should not have given up so easily.

You shouldn’t have given up so easily.

He should not have left the party so early.

He shouldn’t have left the party so early.

She should not have gone to the beach without me.

She shouldn’t have gone to the beach without me.

We should not have drunk so much beer.

We shouldn’t have drunk so much beer.

They should not have asked if they didn’t want to know.

They shouldn’t have asked if they didn’t want to know.

So, you might notice there too guys that I may or may not have slightly made the “Have” an “’ve” sound so that it may sound like “Shouldn’t’ve”. It’s hard for me to kind of split it apart because I’m so used to saying “Shouldn’t’ve” and “Shouldn’ah”. These are the ways that I would really say this when I speak to most other native English speakers and to foreigners as well. It sounds really really weird when I say these sentences completely uncontracted. So, when I say the “We should not have drunk so much beer” that is something that I would almost never say like that. I would almost always use some kind of contraction whether it’s “Shouldn’t have”, “Shouldn’t’ve” or “Shouldn’ah”. So, now we’ll do this same set of sentences again, and this’ll be the end, this’ll be the last exercise, and I’ll say the same sentences but this time I’m going to say them with “Shouldn’t’ve” and I want you to convert them into the contraction “Shouldn’ah”, “Shouldn’ah”. And I think you’re going to hear this contraction the most often, “Shouldn’ah”, “Shouldn’ah”. This is just how most English natives speakers say “Shouldn’t’ve”. So, listen and repeat after me guys.

Substitution exercise: Shouldn’t’ve – Shouldn’ah

I shouldn’t’ve stayed up so late last night.

I shouldn’ah stayed up so late last night.

You shouldn’t’ve given up so easily.

You shouldn’ah given up so easily.

He shouldn’t’ve left the party so early.

He shouldn’ah left the party so early.

She shouldn’t’ve gone to the beach without me.

She shouldn’ah gone to the beach without me.

We shouldn’t’ve drunk so much beer.

We shouldn’ah drunk so much beer.

They shouldn’t’ve driven the car so fast.

They shouldn’ah driven the car so fast.

So, you’ll notice too guys, as you start practicing these and as you start using the contraction “Shouldn’ah”, you’ll probably be able to notice that it flows a lot more. It sounds so much better, for me at least, and so much easier to say when I say sentences like “I shouldn’ah stayed up last night”, “You shouldn’ah given up so easily”, “He shouldn’ah left the part so early”. It just comes out so much easier when I say it like that. And this is probably why these contractions have formed [in English], because it’s easier to say like this when we’re speaking quickly. Anyway, as I always tell you guys at the end of these episodes, only really worry about understanding what these contractions represent, “Should not have”, in this example. If you don’t want to use them yourself when you speak you don’t have to, but it’s just something you want to understand when other people use these phrases and these contractions when they speak.

So, that’s this episode guys. I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll chat to you soon.