16 July 2008 - Written by Rob

We use ‘can’ to talk about abilities:

He can play guitar.
I can’t believe it’s not butter.
You can do it if you really want.
You can’t always get what you want.
They can speak German, but they cannot speak French.

‘Can’ is used in the present tense, to talk about things that someone is able to do now, at this time. It is what’s known as a ‘modal verb’.

If we want to use ‘can’ in the past tense, we change it to ‘could’. (Note: ‘could’ has several other meanings, but we shall only focus on the one meaning in this lesson):

I couldn’t understand what you were saying to me last night on the telephone
They could sing many old songs when they were younger, but now they can’t remember them.
He told me that when he was a child, he could read people’s minds
I couldn’t remember for days, but today it finally came back to me
We could go out whenever we pleased, back then.

Now, insert either ‘can’ or ‘could’ (or ‘can’t’ or ‘couldn’t’) into the following sentences.

1. I looked and looked but I _______ find anything.
2. ______ you hear me? I’m speaking as loud as I _____.
3. What do you mean, you ______ believe me - I’m telling you the truth!
4. She _____ sing so beautifully, before she lost her throat to the wild dogs.
5. They ______ take long, leisurely strolls in the hills and meadows while they were living in Switzerland. It was ideal.
6. We ______ leave the house until the landlord went away.