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Modal Verbs - Lesson 201

Can, Could and Be Able To

Lesson 201 - learn the modal verbs can, could and be able to: how to form it, when to use it, clear examples and a short video from a British English teacher.

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How to form and use the can, could and be able to

Different tenses with the verb can:

Can is present, could is both past and conditional. There are no other parts of this modal verb. To make other tenses we use the verb to be able to.

Infinitive - to be able to
Present - I can or I am able to, he can or he is able to
Future - I will be able to, I am going to be able to
Past - I could or I was able to, you could or you were able to
Present Perfect - I have been able to, he has been able to
Conditional - I could or I would be able to
Conditional Perfect - I could have or I would have been able to
Imperfect subjunctive - If I could or if I were able to
Gerund - being able to
Participle - been able to


The following video explains can, could and to be able to:

Watch the video lesson

Video transcript

Hi. Can. In this video I want to look at the different tenses of can. Can is present. The word can, I can, is present and can be used to give meaning in the present or the future. I could is either the past simple. Could, I had the ability. When I was a child I could swim, I had the ability and could also is conditional. Erm... if I had more money I could do it. OK. That's conditional, could. All other tenses we use the phrase be able. So the infinitive of can is to be able. Yes. The future I will be able. OK the past... The present perfect (WRONG should be past) simple, I was able. Notice, I can is the same as I am able, I could is the same as I was able, or I would be able. So that's just a little bit of the structure of can. We will look at can in more detail, can and could, in the next video. Thanks.

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This lesson is part of our free English Modal Verbs course. Work through the series in order, or jump to the tense or structure you need next.

All modal verbs lessons →