Basics: Should - Advice
This challenge contains 12 questions at medium difficulty covering Basics: Should - Advice. Test your knowledge with a mix of question formats!
Try the quiz to check your knowledge!
Finish the roommate's desperate kitchen advice before the fire alarm goes off.
Honestly, should we call the fire department? I think we should grab the cat and run outside immediately!
Honestly, should we call the fire department?
To form a question with "should", invert the subject and the modal verb (Should + subject + base verb). We do not use "do" or "does" to make questions with modals!
I think we should grab the cat and run outside immediately!
"Should" is always followed by the bare infinitive. It never takes an "-s" ending or uses the word "to".
Local: "You ________________________________ Luigi's down the street, but you _________________________ between 1 PM and 3 PM because they close for a nap."
Tourist: "Excuse me, where should we go for the best authentic pizza in town?"
Local: "You should definitely try Luigi's down the street, but you shouldn't go between 1 PM and 3 PM because they close for a nap."
We use should in question forms to ask for advice or recommendations.
When giving advice, "should" is followed directly by the base form of the verb (without "to" or "-ing"). "Shouldn't to go" is grammatically incorrect.
The correct answers are You should eat the pizza with your mouth, not your ears. and You shouldn't stare so intensely at the lunch lady's hairnet.
Modal verbs like "should" take the bare infinitive (the base verb without "to").
Therefore, "should not absorbing" is incorrect because it uses an -ing participle, and "should to chew" is incorrect because it includes the particle "to".
Complete the frantic student's question to their classmate.
_____ my professor that my dog actually ate my flash drive, or is that too cliché?
The correct answer is Should I tell.
When asking for advice, we invert the subject and the modal verb. The structure is: Should + subject + base verb. We do not use auxiliary verbs like "do" to make questions with "should," and we never include "to" before the main verb.
"You shouldn't drink a fifth cup of espresso if you actually want to sleep tonight. Instead, you should try drinking some chamomile tea and relaxing."
We use should and shouldn't to give friendly advice or recommendations.
Mustn't implies a strict rule or prohibition, which is too strong for advice.
Ought is incorrect here because it must be followed by "to" (ought to try).
Help the seasoned traveler give advice to their extremely unprepared friend.
Since you are going to Antarctica, you should pack a very warm coat. Also, you probably shouldn't expect to find many tropical beaches there.
Since you are going to Antarctica, you should pack a very warm coat.
"Should" is a modal verb, which means it must be followed directly by a bare infinitive (the dictionary form of the verb, without "to").
Also, you probably shouldn't expect to find many tropical beaches there.
The correct negative form is "shouldn't" (or "should not") plus the base verb. Modal verbs never take an "-s" ending, even for third-person subjects, and the word "not" comes directly after "should".
The correct answers are You should wear a cool hat tonight. and You shouldn't try to cut it yourself to fix it!
When giving advice, we use "should" or "shouldn't" followed directly by the base form of the verb (e.g., wear, try).
We never use "to" after should (so "should to cancel" is incorrect), and we do not use the -ing form (so "should wearing" is incorrect).
"I should have packed a physical map instead of relying on my phone's battery. I also shouldn't have ignored the local ranger's warnings about the incoming fog!"
When we want to give advice about the past or express regret about things that already happened, we use should have + past participle (or shouldn't have + past participle).
"Should pack" is present advice, but the hiker is already lost!
Help the aspiring chef salvage their dinner party by choosing the best advice.
If you want the smoke alarm to stop blaring, you should _____ the oven right now!
The correct answer is turn off.
When we use "should" to give advice, it must be followed directly by the base form of the verb (the bare infinitive). We never use "to" or add "-ing" or "-ed" after "should."
Complete the campus nurse's advice to a reckless student.
If you want your ankle to heal properly, you should rest it for a few days. You definitely shouldn't play soccer this weekend!
If you want your ankle to heal properly, you should rest it for a few days.
When giving advice, use "should" followed by the base form of the verb (without "to" or "-ing").
You definitely shouldn't play soccer this weekend!
To give negative advice, use "should not" or "shouldn't" followed by the base form of the verb. We do not use "don't" with modal verbs like "should".
The correct answers are You shouldn't leave your snacks on the counter anymore. and He should apologize to the landlord before we get evicted.
The modal verb "should" is the same for all subjects (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) and is always followed by a base verb without an "s" (so "should calls" is incorrect).
To make it negative, we use "should not" or "shouldn't". We never use "don't" or "doesn't" with modal verbs (so "don't should keep" is incorrect).
Be a good friend and complete this urgent text message to stop a late-night mistake.
I know you miss him, but you really _____ your ex at 2:00 AM. Put the phone down and go to sleep!
The correct answer is shouldn't message.
To give negative advice, we use "should not" (or the contraction "shouldn't") followed by the base form of the verb. We do not use "don't" with modal verbs like "should."
Modal verb
If you've ever struggled with the difference between You must do this (strong command) and You should do this (advice) — or It might rain (possible) and It will rain (certain) — you've felt how much modal verbs do in English. They're how the language signals certainty, obligation, possibility, and politeness, and getting them right is what stops your speech from sounding either pushy or wishy-washy.
A modal verb is an auxiliary — can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would — adding meaning around ability, permission, possibility, obligation, or speculation. Always followed by the bare infinitive (can swim, never can to swim), and never inflected for person.
Questions
If you've ever asked You like coffee? with rising intonation and gotten a confused look — you've felt the gap between casual and grammatical English questions. Many languages form questions with intonation alone, but English usually requires inversion (Are you ready?) or do-support (Do you like coffee?). Skip the structure and your questions sound like uncertain statements.
Questions in English use inversion of subject and an auxiliary (Can she dance?) or do-support when no auxiliary is present (Does the milk go in the fridge?). Yes/no questions, wh-questions, negative questions, and tag questions all share this machinery.
English Grammar Basics
If grammar feels like a tangle of rules you can never quite remember, the fix isn't more advanced material — it's making the foundations automatic. The English Grammar Basics tag is where you do that: the building blocks every other topic stands on. Get these right and the rest stops feeling random.
It marks quizzes and explainers covering the core of English: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, tenses, voice, mood, and basic sentence structure. Useful whether you're a beginner or refreshing rusty knowledge.
A2 | Elementary | Pre-intermediate
If you can order coffee, ask for directions, and tell someone what you did yesterday — but struggle the moment the conversation drifts into anything abstract — you're operating at A2. Knowing this matters: A2 is the level where most learners plateau because they reach for B2 material too early and burn out. Stay here and your foundations get unbreakable.
A2 is the elementary level in the CEFR framework, covering routine communication and the first wave of real grammar: past simple and continuous, present perfect, basic modal verbs, first conditional, and common verb-pattern rules.
Difficulty: Medium
If easy questions feel too obvious but hard questions leave you guessing, you're probably ready for Medium — the level where most real learning happens. It pushes just enough to expose the rules you don't quite have yet, without burying you in edge cases. This is where steady fluency is built, one well-aimed challenge at a time.
The Medium difficulty tag marks middle-range challenges — typically A2 to B1. One rule per question, realistic distractors, and contexts that require active thought rather than instant recognition.