Can y Could

El verbo Could

El verbo modal Can significa “poder” y se usa para:

  • Expresar una capacidad o habilidad, expresar que algo o alguien es capaz de hacer algo y/o sabe cómo hacerlo.
    Ejemplo: I can play guitar but I can’t play the piano.
    in questo caso è sostituibile con be able to
    esempio: Now I’m able to speak English quite fluently.
  • Pedir o dar permiso.
    Ejemplo: Can I have a beer while i’m six months pregnant?
  • Expresar posibilidad o imposibilidad
    Ejemplo: Anyone can become President.

Aforismos con Can

No one but me can save myself though its too late, death greets me warm, now i will just say goodbye
James Hetfield (Metallica)

If you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars.
Jean Paul Getty

Anyone of us can be a rainbow in somebody’s clouds.
Maya Angelou

If you can make a girl laugh – you can make her do anything.
Marilyn Monroe


El verbo Could

Could se considera como el pasado de Can. Pero también se usa para expresar de manera más formal el permiso, por lo que puede considerarse también el condicional de Can.

I could play guitar when I was young
Could I take this?
No one could have anticipated these things
How could I forget you?
He couldn’t come to the meeting last night.

Aquí tenemos una lista exhaustiva del uso de could:

  • could se usa para expresar posibilidad, tanto en el pasado como en el presente y el futuro.
    Ejemplo:
    John could be the one who stole the money.
    John could have been the one who stole the money.
    John could go to jail for stealing the money.
  • could se usa como condicional de can.
    Ejemplo:
    Things could change (Las cosas podrían cambiar).
    Could I use your computer
    (¿Podría usar tu computadora?)
    I could see that movie tonight (Podría ver esa película en la noche)
     

Aforismos con Could

Sin duda ayudarán unos aforismos con could

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learned in seven years.
Mark Twain

A lifetime of happiness? No man could bear it: it would be hell on earth.
George Bernard Shaw

 

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