Difference between CAN and COULD Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question comes from some Cara

alia hi Sin Cara Sin Cara says I could

do it now if you like

what does could mean in this sentence

does could mean ability in the present

or possibility and what does likely to

happen mean in English okay yeah it’s

something maybe that people would use to

say something is possible now I feel

like we would probably say I can do it

now if you like and it would sound like

I can do it now if you like perhaps a

person would use could instead of can to

make it sound a little bit more formal

but it just means it’s possible for me

to do this now if you like I could do it

now if you like do you have time to

finish checking my paperwork today yeah

I could do it now if you like so that’s

a situation where you might hear this

used could will sound a little bit more

formal I think then can so regarding

your second question about the phrase

likely to happen it just means there’s a

good chance of something so there’s a

good chance that something will happen

in the future for example the company

says the new project launch is likely to

happen in June our regular summer party

is not likely to happen this year so I

hope that this helps answer your

questions thanks very much

alright let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Fabio

• Fabio says hello Alicia I’d like to

know about some American dictionaries

which one do you recommend okay yeah my

favorite dictionary is Webster’s

dictionary it’s called the Webster’s

Collegiate Dictionary as well so if you

can’t access the physical book I highly

recommend merriam-webster’s online

dictionary there are my favorite

resource to use I use them pretty much

every week to plan these lessons to plan

other videos it’s a great resource so of

course you can look up Word

and you can find example sentences and

pronunciation there but they also do a

really nice job of sharing interesting

articles about like word history about

new words that are coming up and you can

also do quizzes on their website they

post interesting information on their

Twitter feed so I highly recommend

Merriam Webster’s dictionary that’s my

favorite one so just google for a

Merriam Webster and you can find it

really really easily there are a couple

of other official American dictionaries

the other two like big dictionaries

there’s one that’s called the American

Heritage Dictionary that’s one that I

personally have not used and my

understanding is that that’s a very like

conservative approach to standard

English so that dictionary originally

came about because the person the

publisher felt that Merriam Webster’s

approach was like a little bit too open

like they were merriam-webster was

allowing like too many new words to come

in and they weren’t being strict enough

about what’s correct and incorrect and

so on so the American Heritage

Dictionary was like this conservative

response to that you can still find the

American Heritage Dictionary online

today if you want to check it out

there’s like example sentences and

definitions and images and things you

can use to learn more about words there

there’s also the New Oxford American

Dictionary again I have not used this

one personally but that’s based on the

Oxford English Dictionary meaning

British English so that’s as the base

has had like some updates to make it

like an American English dictionary so

that’s another resource that you could

consider using but my personal favorite

as I said is Webster’s dictionary that’s

a great great resource to use in terms

of online dictionaries like I said

merriam-webster is good I also like to

use the Cambridge online dictionary

because in addition to searching or to

being able to search for word meanings

you can search for grammar as well so if

there’s a grammar point you’re not

familiar with they have a grammar search

tool you can also listen to

pronunciations of words in British

English and in American English and they

have lots and lots of

example sentences so I use those two

probably the most the American English

Cambridge dictionary and the American

English Merriam Webster’s dictionary so

those are a few dictionaries for you to

check out I hope that that’s helpful

thanks very much for the question

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from our wrongs I’m

hiya wrongs I hope I said that right

uh wrong the guide says can we use wanna

gonna and gotta informal English writing

or speaking mmm I don’t recommend it in

formal writing no I don’t you might hear

gonna informal speaking like when we’re

speaking quickly but generally using

wanna sounds too casual so wanna is the

reduced form of want to and that even

just wanted to I want to he wants to

might sound a little too casual instead

we would use I would like to in more

formal situations I would like to

reduces to I’d like to I’d like to gonna

you might hear it in speech I would not

use it in writing but gonna is the

reduced form of going to and so that’s

okay to use I’m going to he’s going to

some other things that you could use in

place of that are like I plan to or I

intend to

so these refer more formally to your

upcoming plans and finally gotta is the

reduced form of got to or have got to or

have to so this one is okay to use in

the non reduced form like I have to do

something that’s okay

got to might sound a little bit too

rough if you want to sound like

extremely formal you could say I have a

responsibility to do something so the

short answer is no I would not use these

informal writing you can listen to the

other people around you to hear if they

use these words in speech because in

some cases that might be okay but in

writing I would not do this no okay so I

hope that this helps

to your question thanks very much for

sending it along let’s move on to your

next question next question comes from

Zachary hi Zachary Zachary says hi

Alicia I have two questions

first is there a difference between a

bit and a little bit second do you never

pronounce the T at the end of a noun if

there’s an S after the T in the plural

form for example event events ah okay

first of all no there’s not a difference

between a bit and a little bit they have

the same meaning but native speakers

often like to extend the sound little to

really emphasize how small something is

for example can I have a bit of cake can

I have a little bit of cake so little

like extending that sound makes it sound

like the piece we want is even smaller

it sounds super casual and kind of goofy

kind of funny but this is how it’s used

so the meaning isn’t actually any

different but we like to kind of make an

emphasis phrase or an emphasis kind of

like feel with it regarding your second

question we do actually pronounce the T

here in events events it’s not a hard

sound it’s more like a so it’s like the

tongue touches the back of the teeth

quickly and then makes it sound so you

can kind of try to imitate the sound of

like a cymbal in a drum set that’s the

same exact sound so like events events

tense tense tense sense vents these all

in TS sounds the T sound is pronounced

but it’s just not it’s not events it’s

all together we don’t say events it’s

all together it’s so if I don’t make the

T sound it sounds totally bizarre it

sounds like events events which would

make like a Z sound so the T is

pronounced it’s just kind of softened

events events so practice making that

sound and I think that this sound at the

end of these words will become a little

bit easier to say alright so I hope that

that helps you and good luck with your

continued pronunciation practice let’s

move on to your next question next

question comes from Alexi hi Alexi Alexi

says how correct is the expression and

this weather had been happened in the

sense that sometimes the weather was bad

in the past to express that idea maybe

try saying this bad weather has happened

before so something has happened before

we use has been before a verb in the

continuous tense to express like a

continuing condition or we use has been

before an adjective to express like a

condition like a recent continuing

condition so like for example this bad

weather has been going for days or like

the weather has been terrible lately so

we would not use has been happened we

can use has happened like this bad

weather has happened before that’s fine

or we can use has been continuous has

been adjective form so I hope that that

helps you thanks very much for the

question all right that’s everything

that I have for this week so thank you

as always for sending your questions

remember you can send your questions to

me at English class 101.com / ask -

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thanks very much for watching this

week’s episode of ask Alisha and I will

see you again next week bye bye want to

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