- 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. (
There is no past tense or gerund. (
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.)
Thank you for your article, but actually I always use "should".
ReplyDeleteI think they are a little different:
Deleteought
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