Friday, July 26, 2013

Wah How to use "Ought to"

You can use ought to to give advice or tell someone what to do.

  • You ought to go to bed early. (You should go to bed early.)
  • Ought we to have lunch now? (Do you think it's a good idea for us to have lunch now?)
  • We oughtn't to leave this door unlocked.

Ought, like should, is a modal verb:
It does not take an -s in the third person. (oughts)
There is no past tense or gerund. (oughted,oughting)

However,unlike should, ought is followed by to.
You can use ought to have + Past Participle to talk about things in the past which were supposed to happen but didn't.

  • You ought to have remembered your wife's birthday. (But you forgot.)

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for your article, but actually I always use "should".

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    Replies
    1. I think they are a little different:

      ought

      To indicates what somebody should do, ought is the stronger advice than "should".

      should

      To gives a suggestion on what is the right thing for somebody to do

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