Hva er det?
Can, can’t, could og couldn’t er modale hjelpeverb.
De brukes for å snakke om:
- nåværende evne
- tidligere evne
- tillatelse
- forespørsler
- mulighet
Can er den positive formen.
- I can swim.
Can’t er kortformen av cannot.
- I can’t drive.
Could brukes ofte for tidligere evne eller høflige forespørsler.
- She could read when she was four.
- Could you help me?
Couldn’t er kortformen av could not.
- We couldn’t find the address.
Når du skal bruke dem
Bruk can for nåværende evne.
- He can speak English.
- I can cook.
Bruk can’t når noen ikke er i stand til å gjøre noe.
- She can’t swim.
- We can’t come today.
Bruk can for å spørre om eller gi tillatelse.
- Can I use your phone?
- You can leave early.
Bruk could for generell evne i fortid.
- I could run fast when I was younger.
- They could speak French as children.
Bruk couldn’t for manglende evne eller en mislykket situasjon i fortid.
- He couldn’t read the sign.
- We couldn’t open the door.
Bruk can eller could for å komme med forespørsler.
- Can you close the window?
- Could you close the window?
Could er vanligvis mer høflig enn can i forespørsler.
Struktur
Bruk grunnformen av verbet etter can, can’t, could og couldn’t.
| Form | Struktur | Eksempel |
|---|---|---|
| Positiv presens | subjekt + can + grunnverb | She can drive. |
| Negativ presens | subjekt + can’t + grunnverb | She can’t drive. |
| Positiv preteritum | subjekt + could + grunnverb | She could drive at eighteen. |
| Negativ preteritum | subjekt + couldn’t + grunnverb | She couldn’t drive last year. |
Formen er den samme for alle subjekter.
- I can swim.
- He can swim.
- They can swim.
Ikke legg til -s etter he, she eller it.
Spørsmål
Bruk:
Can/Could + subjekt + grunnverb?
| Spørsmålstype | Eksempel |
|---|---|
| Nåværende evne | Can you swim? |
| Tillatelse | Can I sit here? |
| Forespørsel | Can you help me? |
| Høflig forespørsel | Could you help me? |
| Tidligere evne | Could she read at five? |
Korte svar
- Can you drive? — Yes, I can.
- Can he come? — No, he can’t.
- Could they swim? — Yes, they could.
- Could she open it? — No, she couldn’t.
Eksempler
- I can speak a little Spanish.
- She can’t come to work today.
- Can you help me with this box?
- Can I open the window?
- You can use my computer.
- He could swim when he was five.
- We couldn’t find a taxi last night.
- Could you speak more slowly, please?
- They could not hear the announcement.
- My brother can cook very well.
Unntak
Bruk could for generell tidligere evne.
- She could play the piano when she was young.
For én spesifikk vellykket handling i fortid er was able to ofte mer naturlig.
- We were able to fix the problem yesterday.
Imidlertid er couldn’t naturlig for en spesifikk mislykket handling.
- We couldn’t fix the problem yesterday.
Cannot skrives som ett ord.
- Riktig: cannot
- Feil: can not
Formen can not er bare mulig når not tilhører en annen frase, men denne bruken er uvanlig.
Vanlige feil
-
Feil: She cans swim. Riktig: She can swim. Forklaring: Ikke legg til -s på modale hjelpeverb.
-
Feil: I can to drive. Riktig: I can drive. Forklaring: Bruk grunnverb uten to etter can.
-
Feil: He could speaks English. Riktig: He could speak English. Forklaring: Bruk grunnformen etter could.
-
Feil: Do you can help me? Riktig: Can you help me? Forklaring: Ikke bruk do i spørsmål med can.
-
Feil: I don’t can swim. Riktig: I can’t swim. Forklaring: Bruk can’t, ikke don’t can.
-
Feil: She could to read at four. Riktig: She could read at four. Forklaring: Ikke bruk to etter could.
-
Feil: Can you helped me? Riktig: Can you help me? Forklaring: Bruk grunnformen av verbet etter can.
-
Feil: I couldn’t found my keys. Riktig: I couldn’t find my keys. Forklaring: Bruk grunnformen etter couldn’t.