{"id":3161,"date":"2013-10-30T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=3161"},"modified":"2013-10-18T20:28:28","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T00:28:28","slug":"cancould-vs-to-be-able-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/cancould-vs-to-be-able-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Can\/could vs. to be able to"},"content":{"rendered":"

The use of \u2018can<\/strong>\/could<\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018to be able to<\/strong>\u2019 in order to express ability, can at times cause confusion. So, today we are going to look at these different verb constructions and how they are used the same, and differently, to talk about ability. Here we go.<\/p>\n

Can<\/strong>\u00a0and to be able to<\/strong> are usually used in the same way without a difference in meaning, but not always…<\/p>\n

\u2018Can<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0is a modal auxiliary verb that expresses general ability in the present tense;\u00a0\u2018could<\/strong>\u2019 works the same way, but in the past tense.<\/p>\n

\u2018To be able to<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0is not a modal auxiliary verb. It is the conjugated verb ‘to be’ + the adverb ‘able’ + the infinitive ‘to’.<\/p>\n

When talking\/writing about ability in the present tense you can use either \u2018can<\/strong>\u2019 or \u2018be able to<\/strong>\u2019,\u00a0but \u2018can<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0is generally more common among native speakers.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nI can<\/em> speak two languages.
\nI am able to<\/em> speak two languages.<\/p>\n

When talking\/writing about past ability you can use\u00a0\u2018could<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0or\u00a0\u2018was\/were able to<\/strong>\u2019 in order to discuss an ability that existed for a long time, but now no longer exists.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nWhen I was young, I was able to<\/em> speak two languages.
\nWhen I was young, I could<\/em> speak two languages.<\/p>\n

But you should\u00a0only use \u2018was\/were able to<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0with action verbs<\/em> to talk about an ability related to a single event or incident in the past.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nI was able to<\/em> surprise my teacher yesterday.
\nDon\u2019t say:<\/strong> I could surprise my teacher yesterday.<\/p>\n

You can use either\u00a0\u2018could<\/strong>\u2019 or\u00a0\u2018was\/were able to<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0with some stative verbs<\/em> (see, hear, feel, taste)\u00a0to discuss ability related to a\u00a0single event or incident in the past.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nI was able to<\/em> see the teacher well from my seat yesterday.
\nI could<\/em> see the teacher well from my seat yesterday.<\/p>\n

It is also okay to use\u00a0\u2018couldn\u2019t<\/strong>\u2019 or\u00a0\u2018wasn\u2019t\/weren\u2019t able to<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0for negative statements for both single events and a long period of time in the past.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nI wasn\u2019t able<\/em> to surprise my teacher yesterday. or I was never able to<\/em> surprise my teacher.
\nI couldn\u2019t<\/em> surprise my teacher yesterday. or I couldn’t<\/em> ever surprise my teacher.<\/p>\n

Lastly, when talking\/writing about future ability in English we only use\u00a0\u2018will be able to<\/strong>.\u2019 We never use \u2018can\u2019 for an ability that may exist in the future.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nWhen I finish the advanced level English class I will be able to<\/em> speak like a native speaker.
\nDon\u2019t say:<\/strong> When I finish the advanced level English class I can speak like a native speaker.<\/p>\n

But it is okay to use either\u00a0\u2018can<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0or\u00a0\u2018will be able to<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0when we are talking about decisions<\/em> and future arrangements<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Examples:
\nI can<\/em> attend the class next week.
\nI will be able to<\/em> attend the class next week.<\/p>\n

I hope this post helps clear up any confusion you had about the different uses of \u2018can\/could\u2019 and \u2018to be able to\u2019 when you are talking about present, past, and future ability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The use of \u2018can\/could\u2019 and \u2018to be able to\u2019 in order to express ability, can at times cause confusion. So, today we are going to look at these different verb constructions and how they are used the same, and differently, to talk about ability. Here we go. Can\u00a0and to be able to are usually used…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956],"tags":[304729,218824,304726,304730,304727,304728],"class_list":["post-3161","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-english-grammar","tag-am-able-to","tag-can","tag-could","tag-to-be-able-to","tag-was-able-to","tag-were-able-to"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3162,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3161\/revisions\/3162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}