Polyglot Dictionary

can

/kæn/

modal verb A1
V Register Neutral Era Current Frequency Core Domain General Tone Neutral

Forms

negative
cannot / can't
past
could

Meaning

  1. poder (capacidad)

    Expresses ability — what someone is physically or mentally able to do.

  2. poder (permiso)

    Expresses permission, especially in informal requests — "may" is the more formal equivalent.

Práctica

1 ¿Qué significa can?

2 Completa el espacio en blanco: I ___ swim.

3 ¿Qué gráfico de características corresponde a can?

Usage notes

"Can" has no infinitive, no "-s" form, and no past participle — it only exists as "can" (present) and "could" (past/conditional). The negative is "cannot", almost always contracted to "can't" in speech.

verbmodal-verbirregularcore-vocabularygrammar

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