Summer English Lesson VIII. Can and Could.

Hi students,

I’m glad to be with all of you once again. Today we’re going to talk about two modal verbs: Can and Could.

We use Can to express ability in the present, and Could to express ability in the past.

We do not put “s” for the third person singular. We use CAN / COULD + INFINITIVE.

The negative of can is cannot and the contraction is can’t. The negative of could is could not and the contraction is couldn’t.

Examples:

I can play the electric guitar. (general ability in the present)

Sarah can speak German, Italian and English, but she can’t speak Spanish.

I could play the piano very well when I was young. (general ability in the past)

Before my friend Mike came to Spain, he couldn’t understand much Spanish.

Well, that’s all by now. I hope you enjoyed this lesson and practise whenever you can.

Bye. Juanjo.