{"id":1848,"date":"2017-02-14T16:17:41","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T16:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2017-02-17T13:12:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:12:01","slug":"uses-of-can-and-could","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/uses-of-can-and-could\/","title":{"rendered":"Uses of can and could"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5;\">The modal auxiliaries <a href=\"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/usage\/can-could.htm\"><strong>can and could<\/strong><\/a> have several uses. They are used to talk about ability and possibility, to ask for and give permission, and to make requests and offers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Examples are given below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She <strong>can<\/strong> speak English. (This shows her ability.)<\/li>\n<li>He <strong>could<\/strong> solve the puzzle in just two minutes. (Ability)<\/li>\n<li>She <strong>could<\/strong> speak when she was just two. (Ability)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Use <strong>cannot and could not<\/strong> to talk about inability.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I can\u2019t speak French.<\/li>\n<li>They could not open the door.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that <strong>cannot<\/strong> is written as one word.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Possibility<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She can come in the evening. (Possibility)<\/li>\n<li>Glass can be blown. (Possibility)<\/li>\n<li>There could be a strike next week. (Weak possibility)<\/li>\n<li>It could rain this afternoon. (Weak possibility)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Permission<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Can I watch TV after doing my homework? (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/grammar\/may.htm\">May<\/a> is considered more correct here, but \u2018can\u2019 is gaining acceptance.)<\/li>\n<li>You can go home early today. (Permission)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Offers and requests<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Could you help me? (Request)<\/li>\n<li>Can you post this letter for me? (Request)<\/li>\n<li>Could I have some more tea? (Request)<\/li>\n<li>Can I help you? (Offer)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The modal auxiliaries can and could have several uses. They are used to talk about ability and possibility, to ask for and give permission, and to make requests and offers. Examples are given below.&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[251],"tags":[277],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-can-and-could"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1881,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}