Learn English – “shouldn’t have been” or “should haven’t been”

differencenegationsubjunctivesword-order

Which one has the good order?

  1. You shouldn't have known it.
  2. You should haven't known it.
  3. You should not have known it.
  4. You should have not known it.

Best Answer

  1. You shouldn't have known it.
  1. You should not have known it.

Both perfectly acceptable. In some cases (very formal writing), a contraction like “shouldn’t” would be avoided in favor of spelling out “should not.” In most cases, the choice between one or the other would be up to the author or speaker, and would not make much, if any, difference.

  1. You should have not known it.

Awkward, unusual construction. This only makes sense if you are emphasizing not here heavily, as in “You should have not known it.” Where “should not have” suggests that the action was a bad idea, “should have not” emphasizes that you should have avoided that action in particular. Implicitly, it suggests you should have done almost anything but that.

In effect, this formulation creates a new verb, “not-know,” meaning roughly “anything-but-know,” and says you should have done that.

Considering the strength of the phrasing, this reads as scolding. If spoken aloud, and not spoken in an angry or scolding manner, it would sound odd and suggest the speaker was muddling their English a little bit. A native speaker, I think, would only ever say this in an angry or scolding manner. As such, it would be wise to use such a phrasing very carefully in written text, where you cannot convey tone. It may be read as scolding, which could be drastically inappropriate depending on the situation.

  1. You should haven't known it.

I cannot imagine any situation where this would be the correct thing to say. Strictly speaking, it means the same thing as 4, but the entire point of the unusual phrasing in 4 was to emphasize the not—you can’t emphasize a word you’re leaving out (by contracting it). Also, in 4 the “not” is going with the “known,” the thing you “should have” done is to “not-know” whatever we’re talking about. Combining it with “should” breaks that connection, and results in a sentence that doesn’t make sense and simply sounds wrong.