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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Modal verb CAN past participle form
Modal verb CAN past participle form
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amrodriguez
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Modal verb CAN past participle form
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I �ve seen in a pupil�s book for flyers, published by Cambridge University press a list of irregular verbs, in which they included "can" with a past form " could" and a past participle form "could". I have never used " could" as a past participle,I have always said " been able to" because can is a modal verb so it has not a proper pp from. My question is if you think, as I do, that this is wrong or it�s me who has been wrong all these years , and I�ve been teaching English for twenty five years till now��. I would appreciate your answers, so I can have this clear. Thanks a lot
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20 Oct 2015
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loboclaud
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Hi! In my opinion "can" doesn �t have a past participle. I �ve never seen it in any books and I �ve been teaching English for 23 years now. I think you are right, I also use "been able to" but maybe some of our native speaking teachers can help further. |
20 Oct 2015
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Gi2gi
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NO modal verbs have past/present participles or any other non-finite verb forms. That �s, in fact, one of the reasons they are called modals. Cheers, Giorgi
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20 Oct 2015
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parsland
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There aren �t any past or present participle form for can in dictionaries. |
20 Oct 2015
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almaz
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Actually, parsland, �canned � is both the past simple form and the past participle of non-modal �can �. It can be used adjectivally, too; in fact, it used to be my default weekend state as a student – and usually ended up as my post-part-time job description as well. |
20 Oct 2015
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parsland
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@ almaz
I wrote about can as modal and not a verb . |
20 Oct 2015
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redcamarocruiser
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Englishclub.com says Use of couldcould for past possibility or abilityWe use could to talk about what was possible in the past, what we were able or free to do: - I could swim when I was 5 years old.
- My grandmother could speak seven languages.
- When we arrived home, we could not open the door. (...couldn �t open the door.)
- Could you understand what he was saying?
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20 Oct 2015
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almaz
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@ parsland: I know what you wrote. |
20 Oct 2015
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