Expressing Ability to Do Something with CAN COULD or BE ABLE TO English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson we’re going to talk about some

expressions you can use to talk about

your abilities so I’m going to introduce

some expressions you can use for the

past for the present and for the future

these are just a few examples of some

ways you can talk about the things you

can could and will be able to do so

let’s take a look with a few examples of

each pattern okay let’s start with the

first one I can plus a verb so here the

subject in the sample pattern is I but

we can replace I with for example he or

she or it or they the same is true for

all of the other patterns I’m going to

introduce in this lesson so we use I can

plus a verb as sort of the basic most

simple way to express something we are

able to do so example sentences I can

speak English my verb here is speak in

this case so this could be something

many of you can use another example here

I’ve changed the subject to she she so

she can my verb is run she can run 5k 5k

beating five kilometres in 30 minutes

so these are just some simple very basic

ways to express something we can do we

are able to do of course we can use the

negative for this I can’t to speak

English I can’t speak Chinese for

example or she can’t run 5k in 30

minutes we can make the negative with

this pattern too so this is maybe the

most basic way to express something you

can do you are able to do let’s look at

another one this expression is I know

how to plus a verb I know how to do

something so we can use the same verbs

we used in the first pattern in this

pattern if you like for example I know

how to

speak English is fine however we use

know how to do something for something

that requires like study or something

that requires maybe a process there are

rules for that thing so a sentence like

I know how to run 5k it’s not quite so

natural because running isn’t really

necessarily a topic of study running

requires practice yes

but it’s not really something we study

so we use know how to do something for

something we have learned how to do so

not necessarily physical practice of

something but we have learned this thing

so some examples I know how to use

Photoshop so Photoshop is a piece of

software something we can study

something we learn how to use another

example he knows how to bake cookies so

here this is something we need to study

in other words so there’s a process to

baking cookies he knows how to bake

cookies so please keep in mind as we see

in this example when we change the

subject from I 2 for example he she or

it the following verb no needs to change

we need to modify the verb so it has an

S at the end he knows how to bake

cookies so don’t forget this s however

this verb does not change he knows how

to bake cookies so we don’t need to

modify this verb will only modify the

first one which is attached to the

subject ok

so this is for a process something we

study to become able to do now let’s

talk about a couple of past tense

examples so these two are maybe present

tense expressions let’s talk about some

past tense example sentences the first

one when I was a kid I could and our

verb so here I’ve said when I was a kid

you can change this of course when I was

a student when I was an elementary

school student when I lived in a

different city for example

so this part can change to a different

time period in your life however here

I’m using the past tense could I could

so this implies this suggests that maybe

this action is not possible for you now

let’s look at some examples so when I

was a kid I could swim all day long so

this sentence sounds like now I can’t

really it’s it’s just a simple

expression with past tense I could I

could

so maybe the speaker is going to share

some more information about their

current ability but here I’ve used when

I was a kid again you can change this to

like when I was in swimming club for

example I could swim all day long so

there are a lot of different variations

you can use with this pattern anyway

let’s look at another example when you

were a kid so maybe if a parent wants to

talk to their son or daughter about

their childhood they can use this

expression so when you were a kid you

could sleep for 12 hours straight so

it’s 12 hours straight means 12 hours

non-stop

so you is my subject here when you

therefore was in my example pattern

changes to were when you were a kid you

could sleep for 12 hours straight so

again this is a past tense expression

let’s look at one more past tense

expression maybe you’re familiar with

used to used to so I used to be able to

do something so where the action is a

verb here so here we have used to so

maybe you know I used to followed by

just a simple verb so like I used to

cook every day or I used to exercise

every day here we introduced I used to

be able to this expression allows us to

explain an ability we had in the past so

let’s look at some examples I used to be

able to

speak Spanish here’s my verb to speak

Spanish used to shows a long time ago in

the past I had this ability but now I do

not so remember the nuance of used to is

that something was true in the past and

it is not true now I used to also please

consider the pronunciation here so not

used to but native speakers connect the

D and the T sound at the end of used and

to so it’s not used to but used to used

to there’s just one sound there used to

so think of it as dropping the D used to

I used to do something one more example

she used to be able to babysit meaning

her schedule maybe has changed now she

cannot babysit so here we have some

expressions with used to to a talk about

a past ability ok

finally let’s end with one example a

pattern that you can use to talk about

future possibilities or future abilities

so you can use this when you want to

make a guess about the future so

something you think you might be able to

do in the future so the base pattern is

in the future will be able to verb so

here I have we in my example we will so

wheel is the contracted form of we will

and I’ve used we in this case we means

all people all people all members of

society we together so some examples of

this in the future we’ll be able to use

AI technology AI so artificial

intelligence AI technology in the future

we’ll be able to use AI technology so

you might wonder why am I using will

here instead of like going to for

example we use will when we’re making a

guess about the future that we can’t

really see so we can’t see what’s going

to happen in the future and maybe we

don’t have

such a strong level of confidence we

don’t have a super high level of

confidence about our guests in those

cases we can use will so these are nice

to talk about capabilities things we are

able to do or in this case things we

might be able to do in the future so

this is a sentence you can use to make a

prediction to make a guest let’s look at

one more example said this okay in the

future we’ll be able to travel to space

so here again I’m making a guess

about space travel so I don’t have a

high level of confidence because I don’t

know very much about space travel but I

want to make a guess in the future we’ll

be able to travel to space if you want

to decrease the level of confidence of

your guests you can include I think for

example in the future I think we’ll be

able to travel through space so you can

change the level of your confidence of

your guests by introducing some other

phrases like I think or maybe all right

so these are a few ways that you can

express your abilities in the past the

present and in the future these are just

a couple of different patterns to do

that but please be careful some things

that I’ve noticed are that often

students will mix up the present tense

can and past tense could so make sure to

use past tense when you’re talking about

your abilities in the past and make sure

to use present tense for the things you

are able to do now so please keep that

in mind okay so that’s all for this

lesson I hope that it was helpful for

you if you have any questions or if you

want to try making a sentence with one

of these expressions please feel free to

do so in the comment section below this

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thanks very much for watching this

lesson and I will see you again soon bye

you

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