Can vs Could Learn English Vocabulary

want to speak real english from your

first lesson

at englishclass101.com

hi everybody my name is alicia in this

lesson

i’m going to talk about the differences

between

can and could this lesson is going to

include a lot of information and some

example sentences

if you want to know more about any of

these points

try searching our youtube channel for a

lesson with some more detail

okay let’s get started with the first

point number one

up here the first way to use can

and could that i want to talk about is

to express

abilities so an ability that refers to

something we are

able to do or not

able to do when we want to talk about

a present ability something we can do

now i just used can to express that

something we have the ability to do

now we use can plus

a present tense verb this

expresses a present ability something we

can do now it’s possible for us to do

that now

to make the negative form we use can not

or can’t can’t i can’t do something

when we want to talk about a past

ability

for example something in our childhood

or something when we were

in school we use could

plus a present tense verb again so this

verb

in past and present form uses a present

tense in this position this verb here

we always use a present tense verb in

this position

this expresses a past ability we know

this because we’re using

could in this pattern let’s take a look

at a couple

of examples of this first

a pair of present tense statements the

first one here is

i can speak english

i can speak english so a very basic

pattern

hopefully many of you can use here we

see

can plus speak in this case

speak is a present tense verb and then

we have the language here

so a reminder we use speak when we’re

talking about our language abilities not

i can talk

or i can say but i can speak english

of course we could change this to a

negative i can’t

speak french for example we can use the

same pattern

just replacing can with the negative

can’t

i can’t let’s look at a different one

though she

can’t swim she can’t swim

so here my subject has changed yes to

she

there’s no change here to reflect the

subject

and swim my verb following

can’t remains in the present tense so

these are very basic examples

of how to express our abilities with can

and can’t in present so let’s compare

this then

to using could to make past tense

expressions

so as i said could will change from can

to could

but the verb does not change let’s see

how we use this

he could speak spanish

when he was a kid he could speak

spanish when he was a kid this is a

past tense ability statement and

something you’ll notice is very common

in these past ability statements

is a point in time or like a time period

when so he could speak spanish

when when he was a kid

so you’ll notice this is also in past

tense not when he is a kid

when he was a kid at that point in time

in the past it’s finished now

so we’ll often include a time period or

a point in time in the past

to help us understand this ability

one more example here this is a negative

example

we couldn’t watch the movie

it was too violent we couldn’t watch the

movie

it was too violent so here this is a

past

tense negative couldn’t is the reduced

form

of could and not we could not watch the

movie

so we could say yes this is kind of like

a possibility statement

which i’ll talk about a little bit later

but we can also

use this kind of expression to explain

it was not

possible for us to watch the movie like

i didn’t have

the ability to watch that movie we might

use an expression like this

so the reason here instead of a point in

time

which we probably understand from the

situation like we couldn’t watch the

movie last night or we couldn’t watch

the movie last weekend

instead of a point in time i included

a reason so why

couldn’t i watch the movie or why

couldn’t we watch the movie

it was too violent so it

is the movie the movie itself this was

past

tense a past situation violent violent

so this means there’s

like maybe like action people attacking

other people hurting other people

maybe very graphic scenes extreme or

intense

images it’s too violent so

we can use couldn’t to talk about these

kinds of things too

i’ll explain a little bit more when i

talk about point number three

in this lesson so this is how we use can

and could for present and past tense

abilities all right let’s continue on to

point number two for this lesson

point two is using can and could for

requests and for

offers so this is actually

a bit simpler than this point i think

the difference here when you’re making

requests and offers with can

and could it’s just that can sounds more

casual it sounds a little bit more

friendly

good sounds a bit more polite so both of

these

are okay to use in most situations

if you want to sound a little bit more

formal a little bit more polite

you can use could in most everyday

situations we use

can so we begin our request

or our offer usually with can and we

make a question with it

there are a couple of other variations

too i’ll show you

a couple examples so let’s look at using

can first so let’s begin our sentence

our question with

can here can you help me

with my homework can you help me with my

homework

this is a request please help me in

other words

so instead of please help me with my

homework which sounds

like a word desperate maybe please help

using can you is kind of like

asking do you have the ability to

help me with my homework is it possible

would it be okay

so it’s a bit softer than using please

so please help me

it’s okay there’s not a communication

problem

but can you help me with my homework

sounds a bit nicer

a little bit more friendly now let’s

look at using

can to make an offer i

can buy you a coffee if you like

so if you like is like if you want one

if it’s okay do you want one if you like

a nice offer expression i can buy you a

coffee

so here in the offer pattern can

comes before the verb so again

we can think of this a little bit like

an ability so it’s like the speaker is

saying

right now i have the ability to buy you

a coffee

would you like a coffee but that doesn’t

sound natural

it’s like saying right now this is

possible i can buy you one

so is that okay i can buy you a coffee

if you like

so this is a nice friendly way to make

offer let’s compare this then to using

could in similar patterns so as i said

could is going to sound a little bit

more formal a little more polite

first example is a request could you

please send me the files

could you please send me the files so

i’ve added please here to show again

it’s a little more formal

and in this case perhaps it’s a business

situation

maybe it’s a business situation send me

the files

so this is a work request perhaps

maybe that’s why the speaker is using

could and

please you’ll also notice that when i’m

using

could or can to create a request

question i’m following the word can or

could

with the person i want to help me

so in this case i’m using you for both

of my sentences

but you might hear some sentences where

the speaker

asks for someone else to do something so

this person is not in the conversation

i’m talking to someone else

i would like ask this person please ask

that person to do something like

can he join the meeting later for

example

that’s something that you might hear too

for these requests and for

probably a lot of requests though we use

you

after can or could but you may hear he

or she or they used in these patterns

too

okay let’s finish this part with an

offer

using could if it’s helpful

we could teach your staff about

the new software if it’s helpful

if it’s helpful so again it’s a

softening expression

kind of like if you like but this sounds

a little more formal

if it’s helpful if you like we could

teach your staff about the new software

so this is an

offer we are offering to teach your

staff

about the new software we use could

to do that we could do this like again

we have this ability yes but in this

case

could is not referring to a past tense

situation

we’re using could to make a polite offer

we could teach your staff so this is one

example of how to do it

okay so this is how we use can

and could to make requests and to make

offers let’s continue then i want to

move back to this side of the board

to point three for this lesson so i

talked a little bit about this

in point number one but we also use uh

could to talk about present and

past possibility so first let’s look at

a couple of sample patterns this is

probably i think these two

the most common patterns you might hear

they use could and could not so

first an explanation in many of these

possibility statements we use could

plus the verb be plus

often some kind of like adjective phrase

when we make the negative form we use

could not

plus the verb be plus our adjective

phrase

so when we make a past tense possibility

statement

we follow a similar pattern but we use

have been instead of be

so this pattern is our present

tense possibility statement a present

situation

have been this could have been pattern

refers to a past possibility so let’s

take a look at some example sentences

that use these patterns first

[Music]

the meeting starts at 2 but

nobody’s here i could be

in the wrong place so here is my

could be so i included this part

to show the situation situation and

context are quite important

for these kinds of statements so in this

case

the speaker is waiting for a meeting

that starts at

two and the speaker is thinking to

himself or herself hmm

the meeting starts at 2 but nobody’s

here

so i could be

in the wrong place another way to say

that is

it’s possible i am in the wrong

place wrong means incorrect i’m in the

incorrect place

the meeting is somewhere else so could

be expresses this possibility there’s a

possibility

i’m in the wrong place you might also

hear

might used here instead of could i might

be in the wrong

place so the difference between might

and could

is very small in this situation i could

in the wrong place is very neutral it’s

not like positive or negative

there’s not a high chance or low chance

just it’s

possible if i said i might be in the

wrong place

it sounds like there’s a higher chance

like maybe uh 50 or 60

it’s not a rule but there’s a higher

chance i’m

in the wrong place like i might be in

the wrong place

sounds a little bit more certain than

i could be in the wrong place so it’s

just the level of certainty there

so i could be in the wrong place let’s

look at another example

this one is a past situation a past

situation

it’s a conversation person a says hey

was that michael so you’re on the street

was that michael over there

in that coffee shop for example b says

no that couldn’t have been michael

he’s out of town out of town so out of

town means away from the city

so here i’m using couldn’t have

been michael so that means that guy

over there you pointed to that couldn’t

have been michael could not have been

this means it’s impossible that was

michael

it is there’s no chance absolutely no

chance that was michael

i know because he’s out of town

he’s out of town he’s not here so

couldn’t have been

means impossible that couldn’t have been

michael

he’s out of town so we use these two

patterns to express

possibility and yes please keep in mind

that this negative

i’ve used here couldn’t have been

means not possible not possible

so couldn’t be as well the negative in

the present form

is also reflective of an impossible

situation

so here i used the positive could be

meaning it’s just possible but when you

use the negative form it means something

impossible so for example let’s imagine

the speaker in this situation

came to the correct place so the speaker

looks at his or her watch and says hm

the meeting starts

at two o’clock and everybody is here

i couldn’t be in the wrong place it’s

impossible

i’m in the wrong place because everybody

is here

i know i’m in the correct place so i

couldn’t be

in the wrong place i’m in the correct

room so impossibility

is reflected with use of the negative

form

with the positive form it’s just simple

possibility very neutral

final point here we make questions with

this

same kind of pattern so we do this

often when we’re thinking like

thinking to ourselves so i’m alone and

i’m thinking to myself about something

or when i need to confirm something

with someone else so an example could

this be

the correct building so could this be

the correct building

i would use this if i’m like checking my

phone checking the gps

on my phone searching for a place i have

a meeting

something i’m looking around and i think

this building is correct i think to

myself

um could this be the correct building

so that’s a that’s a sentence or a

question

a native speaker might say um i feel

in most situations though we just say is

this the correct building

we just say it with is could this

sounds more like is it possible this is

the correct building

so it might sound a little bit more

formal i feel like

in everyday speech more commonly we say

is this the correct building

but you might sometimes hear could used

in this kind of pattern let’s look at

one more

example could i have made the wrong

decision could i have made the wrong

decision

so again the speaker is thinking about

something in the past

or maybe they’re speaking to a friend

could i

have made we know this is a past

expression because of this grammar right

here

could i have made have made

shows us that this is something the

speaker chose

chose to do in the past so could i have

made the wrong decision

could be the speaker thinking out loud

to himself

or herself is it possible i made the

wrong decision

or the speaker could be asking someone

else could i have made the wrong

decision

and they’re expecting some kind of

opinion so

we’re using these patterns to talk about

possibility

so you might hear some questions that

use could

in this way but keep in mind these are a

little bit different

from these offer type questions we

talked about

okay let’s move along then to point

number four

for this lesson point number four is

about

unreal situations unreal situations

so when we use could with unreal

situations there are

quite a few patterns that we can use

but i wanted to introduce just a couple

of very

um kind of simple ways that we use this

so i’ve i’ve made just this very simple

um pair of if clause and main clause

and i’ve got here main clause with could

so a point to be careful of is when

you’re making

your unreal statement and you’re using

this

if something something main clause

something something pattern

make sure your could

is in your main clause we do not use

could in the if clause so no could goes

here

your modal verbs in general don’t put

them in the if clause

put them in the main clause so that

means like will won’t may might

all those words put them in your main

clause could as well

so there are a few different patterns

that we use with unreal situation

so i want to talk about these two they

have a little bit of challenging grammar

so let’s take a look

first one if i won the lottery

i could buy a house if i won the lottery

i could buy a house here’s my if clause

if i won the lottery

comma i could buy a house so here is

could

so could is used yes to talk about this

unreal situation so we know it’s not

real

because of this if right here so that

means i have not won the lottery

uh by the way lottery is a game so we

can

win a large money prize uh

by chance so we buy a card or a ticket

and maybe we get a large prize for that

it’s a game kind of gambling anyway

if i won the lottery meaning i have not

won the lottery but if i did

i could buy a house so this could

is reflective of this possibility point

or kind of you can think of it as

disability point too

a little bit but it means i would be

able to

so i would have lots of money so it

would be

possible to buy a house so we use

could to reflect that if i won the

lottery

i could buy a house possibility here

so we do not use can in this case

we use could because it’s an unreal

situation

we don’t use this can to talk about

these unreal situations please use

could here let’s upgrade a little bit

more challenging grammar here

if clause again if we had finished

work earlier today if clause if we had

finished work earlier today

we could have gone to the movie theater

so this is a very challenging sentence

to understand

let’s take a look if we had finished

work earlier

earlier today earlier than we did so we

finished work at

8pm but if we

had finished so this is referring to a

past

action it’s complete if we finished work

or if we had finished work

at 5 pm for example earlier

then we finished we actually finished at

8 but if we had finished earlier

maybe 5 we could have gone to the movie

theater

so could have gone this use of could

refers to an activity in the past

a possible past activity that would have

been possible

if this part were true so again

to recap we finished work at eight we

could not go to the movie theater

in this situation but if we finished

work

earlier if we had finished work earlier

for example

5 pm in that situation which is not real

did not happen we could have gone to the

movie theater

it would have been possible so we use

these kinds of sentences to talk about

all this stuff in the past that did not

happen

but we just want to dream about it so

this is an example of how we use

could and again we use could here not

can we make a past tense examples

or past tense pattern rather by using

have

plus the past participle form of the

verb so again a challenging grammar

point but this is one we use a lot to

dream

about past situations okay

let’s finish this lesson with point

number five kind of a small point

so i want to go back to point two here

we talked about using

can and could to make requests and

offers

another thing you might hear is using

can’t

and couldn’t to make suggestions

so you’ll notice all of these use the

negative

form so the difference here

is that when you use the positive as we

talked about

in point two positive form sounds a bit

more like a request

it’s like you want something when you

use the

negative though it’s like you’re giving

something you’re giving a suggestion

so using the can is a little more like

you’re pulling

maybe information or you’re pulling

something using

can’t is like you’re you’re giving a

suggestion or you’re giving advice

so we use can’t or couldn’t in the same

way that we use can

and could to sound a bit more polite

and we often pair this we often use this

together

with just just as like a is a modifier

it changes the feeling

to sound like simpler or a little more

gentle like just a simple suggestion

just a small suggestion

so can’t you for example you is very

common here

as i talked about in these patterns

but we can use he she they we and so on

um plus for present tense uh situations

for present tense

um sentences suggestions we use a

present

tense verb here for couldn’t we can talk

about

again present tense situations or we can

imagine as we did here we can imagine a

past tense situation

and you want to give advice you want to

give a suggestion

about that past situation you can do

that with

couldn’t plus past participle verb form

as we did here so some examples of this

first can’t you just leave earlier

can’t you just leave earlier so someone

who’s always late for example

can’t you just leave earlier you could

remove just that’s okay

can’t you leave earlier but just softens

it it’s like

this is a small suggestion can’t you

just leave earlier

another one couldn’t you just call to

confirm

couldn’t you just call to confirm it’s a

small suggestion

so sounds a little more polite because

we’re using couldn’t here

finally couldn’t you have created

a bigger budget for the project couldn’t

you have created a bigger budget for the

project

so this is another past tense situation

so we’re dreaming here again

so couldn’t you have created shows us

this was a past

thing that someone did the listener did

so the speaker created or sorry the

listener

created a budget for the project the

speaker is saying

couldn’t you have created a bigger

budget

for the project so this is giving a

suggestion

or rather the speaker’s opinion about a

choice

or a decision the listener made in the

past

so we use these negative forms to give

suggestions to give advice to give

opinions

uh not so much requests or offers

okay so that’s a lot of information

a lot of different ways to use can and

could and also there are some patterns

there are many patterns

that i did not talk about in this lesson

so you can

try to i think use these five points

maybe

to understand a little better the

different uses of

can and could as you listen and as you

read as well so i hope that this is

helpful for you

again if you want to know more about any

of these points

you can try searching our youtube

channel to see if there’s another

whiteboard video

specifically about one of these points

so please take a look at that

if you enjoyed this lesson too please

don’t forget to give it a thumbs up and

to our channel as well don’t forget to

check us out at englishclass101.com for

some other things that can help you with

your english language studies

and also if you have any questions or

comments or if you want to practice

making some example sentences

please feel free to do so in the comment

section of this video

okay thanks very much for watching this

lesson and i will see you again

soon bye-bye

want to speed up your language learning

take your very first lesson with

us you’ll start speaking in minutes and

master real conversations

just click the link in the description