Should

   Share on Facebook  
Tung Quoc  #277481  Sat, 07 Oct 06 04:59 PM

You should do well on the test.

should here expresses advisability or degree of certainty or both? If not both, how to distinguish advisability or degree of certainty in this case?

Q

 
  
Top 75 Contributor
Joined on Sun, Sep 17 2006
Regular Member (870)
Marius Hancu  #277483  Sat, 07 Oct 06 05:02 PM
 Tung Quoc wrote:

You should do well on the test.

should here expresses advisability or degree of certainty or both? If not both, how to distinguish advisability or degree of certainty in this case?

Q

 
Both. You need more context for clear separation.
  
Top 10 Contributor
Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006
Montreal, Canada
Veteran Member (11,673)
Proficient Speaker
Yoong Liat  #277498  Sat, 07 Oct 06 05:35 PM

Hi Marius

You should do well on the test.

You should do well in the test.

Should the preposition be 'in' instead of 'on? Or are both acceptable?

  
Top 25 Contributor
Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006
Singapore
Veteran Member (6,100)
Yoong Liat
J Lewis  #277503  Sat, 07 Oct 06 05:54 PM
I prefer "in".

If someone says to me You should do well in the test, my immediate interpretation is that the speaker considers I have studied well enough. He could say You will do well, but nobody is ever sure.

Also interpretable as advisability, but here I'd be inclined to put it more strongly: You must do well in the test.
  
Top 150 Contributor
Joined on Tue, Sep 5 2006
Italy
Regular Member (518)
Proficient Speaker
milky  #277706  Sun, 08 Oct 06 07:58 AM
 Tung Quoc wrote:

You should do well on the test.

should here expresses advisability or degree of certainty or both? If not both, how to distinguish advisability or degree of certainty in this case?

Q

 

I'd say certainty. If it were advisability, I'd expect to see/hear "you should try to".

  
Top 50 Contributor
Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004
Senior Member (3,149)
Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".
Anonymous  #277711  Sun, 08 Oct 06 08:42 AM
To be 100% about the intended meaning of should, you often need more context.
However, I agree with Milky in this case:  should seems to suggest certainty in the sentence. 
If it were advisability, the sentence would normally be worded a little differently.

As regards the prepostition:
I have a sneaking suspicion this may be one of those BE/AmE things:  I'd definitely say 'on the test'. Angel [A]
  
J Lewis  #277716  Sun, 08 Oct 06 08:58 AM
Good point, Milky
  
AddThis Feed Button RSS Feed: ESL General English Grammar Questions
© 2008 MediaCET Ltd.
Terms and Conditions & Terms of Service