These questions ask you to choose standard written forms that can sound very similar in speech. Use the grammatical frame and meaning: decide whether the sentence expresses sequence, comparison, a modal perfect, an expectation or a former habit.
Name the structure before spelling it
Do not decide from sound alone. For then and than, ask whether events are ordered in time or two things are compared. For the other expressions, identify the verb structure around the gap. A modal perfect has a modal, the auxiliary have and a past participle. Supposed is a participle after be, while used describes a former state or repeated action in an affirmative clause.
| Meaning or frame | Form and a small example |
|---|---|
| Time or the next step | Use then: Stir the paint, then close the tin. |
| A comparison after a comparative word | Use than: This path is steeper than the coastal route. |
| An unrealised past result after would | Use would have plus a past participle: I would have stayed. |
| Past advice after should, or past possibility after could | Use should have or could have plus a past participle: You should have called; we could have waited. |
| An expectation or requirement after be | Use supposed to: The parcel is supposed to arrive today. |
| A former habit or state in an affirmative clause | Use used to: We used to own a small boat. After did in a question or negative, the base form use appears instead. |
Contractions explain some of the spelling confusion. Would've, should've and could've end with the sound of have, not the preposition of. Expand the contraction and check the three-part pattern: modal plus have plus past participle. Likewise, the weak final sound in supposed and used may disappear in speech, but the written affirmative structures retain their final d.
Where sound misleads
| Temptation | How to reject it |
|---|---|
| Using than for the next event, or then for a comparison | Sequence answers when and takes then. Comparison links two sides and takes than, often after words such as more, less, taller or sooner. |
| Writing of after would, should or could | Of is a preposition and cannot build a perfect verb phrase. Insert have before the past participle, whether or not the modal is contracted in speech. |
| Dropping the d from supposed to after be | The expectation construction uses the participle supposed. Suppose is a different verb form and does not complete be supposed to. |
| Dropping the d from used to in an affirmative past statement | Use used to for a former habit or state. Use to appears after did in structures such as did not use to, because did already carries the past tense. |
Try it
Which affirmative sentence contains a used to/use to error?
- The gallery used to close on Mondays.
- They used to live above the shop.
- She use to take the early bus.
- Our team used to meet after work.
Expand the contraction would've into the full standard two-word phrase: Without the traffic jam, I ___ arrived before the doors closed.
Which sentences are written in standard English rather than with a common sound-alike error? Select all that apply.
- Finish the scan, then restart the laptop.
- I used to cycle to work every day.
- This cable is thinner then that one.
- Guests are suppose to sign in.