English lesson B1 - Using 'can', 'could' and 'be able to' for ability - gramática inglesa

hello and welcome to today's English lesson my name is Stuart in today's lesson we're looking at how we use can could and be able to to talk about ability in English let's go to the intro now as I said today's lesson is looking at can could be able to when we refer to ability in English things that we are able to do things that we can do that we have the as I said the ability to do so the first thing we're looking at is can for ability because we have the knowledge or the skill etc to do that particular thing okay so examples I can ride a bike okay I have the ability to do it I have the skill to do it I know how to ride a bike can you can you ride a bike so we have the affirmative sentence and the question here okay I can ride a bike I have the ability to do it so the next one is I can speak Spanish I can't speak French okay so I can speak Spanish I have the knowledge of Spanish I have the knowledge of Spanish in my mind okay but I can't speak French because I've never learned to speak French so I can't speak French those are the two main uses of can for ability because of the knowledge or skill etc now we can also use can for typical situations or possible situations because of the circumstance okay now what we mean by this is a typical situation it can be hot in Madrid in August it's typical for it to be hot in Madrid in August Madrid is a hot City in August so it can be hot in Madrid in August it can snow in Madrid in okay is a typical situation well it's not really typical but it's possible okay ah next one the doctor called he can see you either today or tomorrow okay he can see you either today or tomorrow okay so the possibilities that he gave was that he can see you either today or tomorrow for your appointment okay now the next thing we look at is be able to now the problem with can is that we're limited to how we can use it we can use that in the present can we can use it in the past could which I'll show you in a minute but we're limited so we can't use can with the present perfect we can't use can with other modal verbs we can't use can in for the future for example okay so how do we get around it well we use be able to okay so we substitute can for be able to now be able to is completely possible in these sentences as well I am able to ride a bike but it's not very common for us to say that it means the same thing so I am able to ride a bike but we normally use be able to when we have those situations that I said before so should modal verb so we can't have modal verbs and can together it just doesn't go okay can is a modal verb should as a modal verb we can't have two so he should be able to come to the party okay she has been able to solve the problem present perfect we can't use can in the present perfect she has been able to solve the problem I be able to do the job if I had more time conditional tense again here with would I would be able to okay we can't say can here and the last one John said he'll be able to call you tomorrow he will be able so the problem with cameras that were limited for the present and for the bars with could so be able to is the substitute I'll be back in a second with how we use could ok back again now could could is used for past ability ok past ability and we also use could with certain verbs now I'll explain this a little bit more in a minute but past ability my grandmother could speak French okay she could speak French my grandmother is no longer here she's passed away so it's a past ability that she had she could speak French okay in the past you could smoke in your office okay in the 1970s and the 1980s even in the 1990s perhaps people used to smoke cigarettes in their office so you could smoke in your office okay people have the ability to do that before and this example here he spoke fast but I can understand him okay he spoke fast but I could understand him now I'll explain this in a minute but the next example is was were able and managed to for one-off situations now this here technically is a one-off situation but when we use these particular verbs see smell understand plus a few others as well okay we can use could so we could say could see could smell could understand okay even though it's a one-off situation but normally in a one-off situation without these verbs we need to use this or this okay so I managed to get the job done quite quickly okay was a one-off job and I managed to get the job done quite quickly we can't say good here next one he was able to get the job he was out sorry he was able to get the job of his dreams he was able to get the job of his dreams again we can't use could but in this situation here he spoke fast but I could understand him even though it was a one-off situation and I only spoke once to this person and he spoke fast but I could understand him okay so with these verbs now couldn't the last thing i'll explain is could now couldn't can be used in any negative situation one-off or not one-off okay so I could say my grandmother couldn't speak French or he tried hard but he couldn't get the job even though it was a one-off doesn't matter we can use the negative without problems I wanted to call but I couldn't find your number yesterday one off but with couldn't we don't need to revert to was were able or managed to okay so it couldn't in this sense can be used in all of the situations but remember that when we have the one-off situation in the past for ability we need to use was were able or managed to and the examples here hopefully it is clear now thank you very much for watching if you have a question or a comment or you want to ask me something please leave it below in the comment section remember to share the video on social media your Facebook your Google+ your Twitter and I'll see you in the next lesson have a good day bye

Channel: Your English Web: Weekly English video lessons

Views: 60,963

Keywords: english grammar, english lesson, can, could, be able to, modal verbs, ingles, grammatica inglesa, ielts, english b1, esl, Teacher, Lessons, Grammar (Quotation Subject), English Language (Language In Fiction), Learn, grammar rules, inglese, inglés, Englisch, англи́йский, angielski, engleză, anglicky, αγγλικά, İngilizce, إنجليزي, Inggris, Angol, inglês, Free English, English lesson, English video, Grammar, learn grammar, English speaking, learn English, speak English, fluent English

Id: SE9-yKX7Q5g

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2015