The Modal
by How modals like can are currently used.
There are lists on the internet talking about how auxiliaries are used in order to ‘push’ the action of the word. In English the words used to ask questions besides the ‘do’ , ‘is’ and ‘have’ which are verb forms themselves, were derived from the Germanic. These words like can, could, might, may, must, have to, will and its polite form shall and finally should and would are auxiliaries. They are used in different situations regarding the way a person wants to speak and what his intention is. I have found some information which is conflicted in the literature and do not intend to clarify that beyond giving what I have learned about these modals and how their uses have changed over the years that I have been teaching.
Can is the direct form of could in asking permission. grammatically speaking could is a past form and is used in questions when someone wants to be polite or in making statements regarding the possibility of what what people did in the past.Can and could are often used in conditional sentences where one thing results from something else or is a consequence of another action providing ‘if’ is used to separate the premise and the consequence or result.
In a sentence like “I can pass the exam if I study”. The person is stating the possibility of passing as long as he applies himself. It suggests what can happen in the future although present tenses are used in the statement. ‘I could pass if I studied is also considered to be the way of expressing a missed opportunity besides being a more polite way of not using can. This is what I have found in the reference literature.’Years ago, I could stay up late’ refers to what the person can no longer do.
I would say that if the person has difficulty understanding this form, he should just work with the first part of the statement without the ‘if’. ‘I could go there on the weekend’ would also be considered a polite way of not using can in the same statement. May refers to what is likely to happen and might refers to something that is even more unlikely to occur.
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