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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