{"id":73792,"date":"2020-04-05T09:42:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T09:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=73792"},"modified":"2020-04-05T09:42:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T09:42:38","slug":"could-modal-auxiliary-verbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/could-modal-auxiliary-verbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Could | Modal Auxiliary Verbs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is a modal auxiliary verb. There is no\u00a0<b>\u2013s\u00a0<\/b>in the third person singular.<\/p>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is used to indicate ability that existed in the past. It is followed by an infinitive without\u00a0<b>to.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>In my younger days I\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>run four miles at a stretch.<\/li>\n<li>Till last year I\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>read without glasses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions and negatives are made without\u00a0<b>do.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>I have a word with you?<\/li>\n<li>Why\u00a0<b>couldn&#8217;t\u00a0<\/b>you attend the meeting yesterday?<\/li>\n<li>We found that we\u00a0<b>couldn&#8217;t\u00a0<\/b>depend on our guide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Uses<\/h3>\n<h3>To talk about past ability in general<\/h3>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is often used to say that somebody was able to do something in the past.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>My father\u00a0<b>could walk\u00a0<\/b>without help when he was 95.<\/li>\n<li>She\u00a0<b>could read\u00a0<\/b>when she was 3.<\/li>\n<li>When we were children, we\u00a0<b>could watch\u00a0<\/b>TV whenever we wanted to.<\/li>\n<li>In my younger days, I\u00a0<b>could run\u00a0<\/b>four miles at a stretch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note that\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>refers to the past only when the context makes the time clear.<\/p>\n<p><b>Could not\u00a0<\/b>(also couldn&#8217;t) shows past inability.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>I\u00a0<b>could not\u00a0<\/b>understand a word, but I kept smiling.<\/li>\n<li>She spoke in such a low voice that most of us\u00a0<b>could not\u00a0<\/b>hear her.<\/li>\n<li>We found that we\u00a0<b>couldn&#8217;t\u00a0<\/b>depend on our guide.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is used to talk about past ability in general. We do not normally use\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>to say that somebody managed to do something on one occasion. But with certain verbs like\u00a0<b>see, hear, taste, feel, smell, understand, remember\u00a0<\/b>etc.,\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>can be used for particular occasions as well.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>Suddenly I\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>hear a loud noise.<\/li>\n<li>I\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>smell something burning.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>As the past equivalent of can<\/h3>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is the past equivalent of\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/direct-and-indirect-speech-basic-rules\/\">indirect speech<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>He said, &#8220;I\u00a0<b>can\u00a0<\/b>drive.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>He said that he\u00a0<b>could\u00a0<\/b>drive.<\/li>\n<li>She said, &#8220;I\u00a0<b>can&#8217;t\u00a0<\/b>climb up the hill.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>She said that she\u00a0<b>could not\u00a0<\/b>climb up the hill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>To make polite requests or offers<\/h3>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>is often used to make a request or offer sound more polite.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>I have a glass of water, please?<\/li>\n<li><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>you help me with these bags?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>To express possibility or uncertainty<\/h3>\n<p><b>Could\u00a0<\/b>can mean\u00a0<b>would be able to.<\/b><\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>You\u00a0<b>could get\u00a0<\/b>a better job if you spoke English. (=You would be able to get a better job if you spoke English.)<\/li>\n<li>You\u00a0<b>could do\u00a0<\/b>it if you tried hard. (=You would be able to do it\u2026)<\/li>\n<li>If only I had some working capital, I\u00a0<b>could start\u00a0<\/b>a new business. (=\u2026I would be able to start a new business.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Could have + past participle<\/h3>\n<p>The structure\u00a0<b>could have + past participle\u00a0<\/b>can be used to criticize people for not doing things. It can also be used to talk about past events that did not happen.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"square\">\n<li>I have been waiting since morning &#8211; you\u00a0<b>could have said\u00a0<\/b>that you weren&#8217;t coming.<\/li>\n<li>Why did you drive so carelessly? You\u00a0<b>could have killed\u00a0<\/b>yourself.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could\u00a0is a modal auxiliary verb. There is no\u00a0\u2013s\u00a0in the third person singular. Could\u00a0is used to indicate ability that existed in the past. It is followed by an infinitive without\u00a0to. In my younger days I\u00a0could\u00a0run&#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":[2525,1381,2474,779],"class_list":["post-73792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar","tag-auxiliary-could","tag-could","tag-modal-auxiliary-verb","tag-modals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73792","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=73792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73793,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73792\/revisions\/73793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}