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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