how to express ability capability

EXPRESSING ABILITY - CAPABILITY CAN COULD BE ABLE TO MANAGE TO...  Sometimes we can use one or more of the verb forms “can, could, be able to, manage to” and the meaning does not change

EXPRESSING

ABILITY - CAPABILITY

CAN COULD

BE ABLE TO

MANAGE TO

We can express the ability/capability of doing something or knowing how to do something in several ways.

 Sometimes we can use one or more of the verb forms

“can, could, be able to, manage to” and the meaning does not change

the sentence depending on the verb form we choose.

depending on which of these verb forms we use.

PRESENT TENSE

• I can play tennis

• I am able to play tennis twice a week

• I manage to play tennis twice a week • I have learnt how to do this and I now

have the ability to do it

• There are no circumstances which stop

me from doing this

• I have to overcome some difficulties in order to do this

• I can play tennis twice a week.

• Can I play tennis with you?

• Are you able to do this on your own?

• Can you do this on your own?

• This is not ability This means that I have

PERMISSION to do this

• This is not ability This is asking for

PERMISSION

• Do you have the necessary abilities? Are you capable of doing this on your own?

PAST TENSES

• I could/was able to play tennis when

I was eleven

• I was able to play tennis twice a

week

• I managed to play tennis twice a

week

• I could play tennis twice a week

• At this age I had the necessary abilities to

do this

• Circumstances allowed me to do this

• It was difficult but I did this

• This is not ability I had PERMISSION to

do this

PAST TENSES

• I’ve been able to play tennis once a

week all summer

• I have managed to play tennis once a

week all summer • Circumstances made this possible

Nothing stopped me from doing this

• Although I have had to overcome some difficulties to do this

The Perfect Tense uses ‘be able to’ and

‘manage to’ for ability/capability

PAST TENSES

• I could get tickets for concerts

whenever I wanted to

• I was able to get two tickets for

Madonna’s concert

• I managed to get a ticket for the

concert

• Perhaps I could get a ticket for the

concert too

• I was always capable of doing this

• I am speaking of a single occasion

• I obtained it with some difficulty

• This is not an ability This is a

POSSIBILITY

PAST TENSES

• John was able to send a message

• John managed to send a message

• John could have sent a message

• John COULD have sent a message!

• He sent it

• It was difficult but he did it

Could + perfect tense is not ability

• He didn’t send it or we don’t know whether he sent one or not

• Expresses irritation because he did not send one

PAST TENSES

• The man was able to escape from

the house on fire

• The man managed to escape from

the house on fire

• The man could have escaped from

the house on fire if the roof hadn’t

collapsed

• He was capable of doing this

• Although it was difficult to do

• He had the POSSIBILITY to do this but unfortunately he didn’t succeed

FUTURE TENSE

• I’ll be able to visit Paris next year

• I hope you’ll be able to come to

Paris with us

• I hope you’ll manage to come with

us

• I won’t be able to come with you

• I will be capable of doing this Nothing should stop me

• Hopefully, no circumstance will stop you from doing this

• Even though you may encounter difficulty

in doing this

• I will be incapable of doing this

FUTURE TENSE

• Will John be able to speak English

well at the end of the course?

• Could you run the business by

yourself?

• Would you be able to run the

business by yourself? • Will he have acquired the ability to do

this?

• Is it possible? Do you have the necessary ability to do this?

• Should it be necessary, would you be capable of doing this?