The modal verbs are:

can could
may might
shall should
will would




Hello Sir,

Can we use "could" to show any future events/activities?

Hello amol,

The answer is yes. For examples, please take a look at our page on could.

If you have a question about a particular aspect of English please check the page or pages which relate to that topic. If you can't find the information then we'll be happy to help but we create the pages in order to provide answers to common questions, so please use them!


Best wishes,


The LearnEnglish Team

Dear Sir,

Why do we use the structure "If I were" to show imagination?

"if I were" shows past form of tense.

Kindly guide.

Hello amol,

The past simple is used to speak about unreal or imaginary situations. So if you say 'if I were a rich man', it means you are not a rich man - you are talking about an imaginary situation.

See the section on the second conditional on our Conditionals 1 page - I think this will help you see how this works.

All the best,
The LearnEnglish Team

i can (simple present, CAN is main verb)

i can a can

i can cans

a can can be canned

Could a can have been canned?

canned cans can can cans (personification)

can canned can can cans?

sir, i know these sentences are not used normally,
but i tried to make sentences
is there any grammatical mistake?

One woman is able to destroy the whole world.
One woman is capable of destroying the whole world.

can 'BE ABLE TO' be replaced with CAPABLE OF?

Hello pyramid,

Yes, you can do that and in general they mean the same thing.

All the best,
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Sir,

If "COULD" is the past form of "CAN", why can we use it to make polite requests in present tense?

Hello amol,

'could', like almost any auxiliary verb, is used in many, many different ways. Its use in polite requests is one use and its use as a past form of 'can' is another. 

All the best,
The LearnEnglish Team