should have + past participle

We use should have + the past participle (eaten, taken, gone, been, seen, walked, etc.) to express regret over a past action or to illustrate that an action that occurred was the wrong one. 

“The football game was great.  Manchester City dominated for whole game, but they lost.  They should have won,” said Tom.

“I didn’t see the game,” replied Paul. “I had tickets, but I gave them away.  I should have gone.”

“Yes, you should have.  I lost my voice from singing with the crowd: I shouldn’t have sung so loudly, but I couldn’t help myself.”

A usage that I have been hearing and seeing more and more frequently is “should have + simple past”—which is incorrect:

I should have went to the game. (incorrect)

I should have gone to the game. (correct)

You should have saw that movie. (incorrect)

You should have seen that movie. (correct)

He should not have ate that final piece of pizza. (incorrect)

He should not have eaten that final piece of pizza. (correct)

Remember that “should (not) have” must always be followed by a past participle.  Here is a list of some commonly confused past participles:

verb	past simple	past participle
arise	arose	arisen
awake	awoke	awoken
be	was/were	been
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
choose	chose	chosen
do	did	done
drink	drank	drunk
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hide	hid	hidden
know	knew	known
run	ran	run
see	saw	seen
show	showed	shown
sing	sang	sung
steal	stole	stolen
swear	swore	sworn
tear	tore	torn
write	wrote	written

Resources

The Grammar in Use series by Cambridge University Press has numerous exercises for most grammatical problems (Unit 32 in Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy and Roann Altman addresses the modal “should” in its various forms); the series runs from Basic to Advanced, so it can help with most problems.