http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/regrets.png

More people do not regret :)
http://xkcd.com/458/

[You Are Wrong]

Um, both those feelings are regretful. The feeling of "I shouldn't have kissed her/him" means I regret kissing. The feeling of "I should have kissed her/him" means I regret NOT kissing.

The idea is that more people don't act on their regrets to kiss someone.

You've forgotten to add the alt text again!

the problem is that there are actually tons of results fo "Im glad i saw epic movie"... i really should find something better to do with my time.

Jak
There weren't before this comic strip was released :P

.. Do we know if "Should" means that

a) they did kiss them and do not regret it. That they kissed the person and it was the correct decision to make

<OR>

b) they didn't kiss them, but regret that choice. That they wished they had kissed them.

Which is it?!

Get back to me on that! ;)

... I should have kissed her.... means.. they didn't and they wished they would have. The comic is saying that far more people regret NOT kissing someone.

It's like the saying "It's better to regret something that you did do than to regret something that you didn't do"

Jeez...it's really not that confusing, people!

I'm confused.

This conversation strikes me as funny because as an english teacher in Brazil, I have ot teach these modal verbs, should, would, could to my students, but I never thought that native speakers could get mixed up with them too...

;)

Schlub

that line is in a red hot chili peppers song, "Deep Kick" it came on randomly in my itunes as i was looking at this page. funny huh. i think its sometimes better to act without thinking, than not act at all. of course it can get us into trouble, but thats life tho, you gotta take chances.

i should have kissed him OR her = 11,200,000

i should not have kissed him OR her = 4,140,000
i shouldnt have kissed him OR her = 641,000
i should'nt have kissed him OR her = 10,400
i shouldn't have kissed him OR her = 3,330,000

thus should not = 4m + 0.6m + 0.01m + 3.3m = 8,121,400

RESULT – more people regret kissing they did than not kissing someone they didn't but the difference is not as huge as the graph suggests...

11m v 8m ~ 1.4