OXFORD PRACTICE GRAMMAR-44 sau đây là giáo trình lý thuyết tiếng anh và bài tập áp dụng từ cơ bản đến nâng cao , nhằm giúp các bạn có thể tự mình ôn tập và củng cố thêm về nền tảng kiến thức môn Anh văn , tự tin đạt kết quả tốt trong kỳ thi ngoại ngữ | OXFORD PRACTICE GRAMMAR 44 ABILITY CAN COULD AND BE ABLE TO A Can and can t Vicky How many instruments can you play Natasha Natasha Three - the violin the clarinet and the piano. Vicky That s terrific. You haven t got a piano here though. Natasha No but I can go to the music room in college and play the one in there. Vicky I m not musical at all. I can t even sing. We use can to say that something is possible that someone has an ability Natasha can play the piano or an opportunity She can go to the music room . Can is usually pronounced but sometimes we say . The negative is cannot or can t . B Can and be able to In the present tense be able to is a little more formal and less usual than can. Emma is good with computers. She can write is able to write programs. But in some structures we always use be able to not can. To-infinitive It s nice to be able to go to the opera NOT to-can-go After a modal verb Melanie might be able to help us. Present perfect It s been quiet today. I ve been able to get some work done. For the future we use can or will be able to but NOT will-can. If we earn some money we can go we ll be able to go on holiday next summer. I m afraid I can t come I won t be able to come to the disco on Friday. But to suggest a possible future action we normally use can. Let s have lunch together. We can go to that new restaurant. C Could and was were able to For ability or opportunity in the past we use could or was were able to. Natasha could play OR was able to play the piano when she was four. In those days we had a car so we could travel OR were able to travel very easily. To say that the ability or opportunity resulted in a particular action something that really happened we use was were able to but not could. The plane was able to take off at eleven o clock after the fog had lifted. Luckily Mark was able to get OR succeeded in getting the work done in time. The drivers were able to stop OR managed to stop before they crashed into each other. Compare .
