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Can, Could, and (Be) Able To

The document discusses the uses of can, could, and be able to. Can is used to express ability or possibility in the present, while could is the past form but also expresses general ability or permission. Be able to is an alternative to can but can is more common. Could is used to talk about abilities related to senses as well as general skills, while was/were able to refers to abilities in specific past situations.

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Rosario Flores
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65 views2 pages

Can, Could, and (Be) Able To

The document discusses the uses of can, could, and be able to. Can is used to express ability or possibility in the present, while could is the past form but also expresses general ability or permission. Be able to is an alternative to can but can is more common. Could is used to talk about abilities related to senses as well as general skills, while was/were able to refers to abilities in specific past situations.

Uploaded by

Rosario Flores
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Can, Could, and (be) able to

We use can to say that something is possible or that somebody has the ability to do
something:

 We can see the ocean from our hotel window.


 Can you speak any foreign languages?
 I can come and help you tomorrow if you want.
 The Word “dream” can be a noun or a verb.

The negative is can’t ( = cannot):

 I’m afraid I can’t come to your party on Friday.

(Be) able to is possible instead of can, but can is more usual:

 Are you able to speak any foreign languages?

But can has only two forms: can (present) and could (past). So sometimes it is necessary to use
(be) able to. Compare:

 I can’t sleep

but I haven’t been abble to sleep recently.

 Tom can some tomorrow.

but Tom might be able to come tomorrow.

Could and was able to

Sometimes could is the past of can. We use could especially with:

see hear smell taste feel remember understand

 When we went into the house, we could smell something burning.


 She spoke in a very soft voice, but I could understand what she said.

We also use could to say that somebody had the general ability or permission to do
something:

 My grandfather could speak five languages.


 We were totally free. We could do wwhatever we wanted. ( = We were allowed to do)

We use could for general ability. But if we are talking about what happened in a particular
situation, we use was/were able to or managed to (not could):

 The fire spread through the building quickly, but everybody was able to escape.

or . . . everybody managed to escape. (not could escape)

 They didn’t want to come with us at first, but we managed to persuade them.

or . . . we were able to persuade them. (not could persuade)

Compare:

 Jack was an excellent tennis player. He could beat anybody.


( = he had the general ability to beat anybody)

but Jack and Ted played tennis yesterday. Ted played very well, but in the end Jack
managed to beat him.

or . . . was able to beat him. ( = he managed to beat him this time)

The negative couldn’t ( = could not) is posible in all situations:

 My granfather couldn’t swim.


 We tried hard, but we couldn’t persuade them to come with us.
 Ted played well, but he couldn’t beat Jack.

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