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Business English: Tip of the Week (31) - 'could'
Hier bekommen Sie einen kleinen Tipp, wie Sie Ihr Englisch verbessern können. Jede Woche geht es um ein neues Thema.Tip of the week
Often small tips can help increase the fluency of our written and spoken English. Every week this podcast will cover a small grammatical point.
This week: 'Could do' and 'Could have'
We use 'could' in several ways. Sometimes 'could' is the past of can.
You might say, 'Listen. I can hear something.' In the present.
Or, 'I listenend. I could hear something.' In the past.
But could is also used to talk about possible actions that might take place now or in the future. (Especially to make a suggestion.)
For example:
What shall we do this weekend?
If the weather's nice, we could go to the beach.
Can is also possible in these sentences, ('We can go the beach etc). The difference, is that 'could' is less certain than can.
You must use 'could' when you don't really mean what you say:
For example, 'I'm so hungry. I could eat a horse!" Not, "I can eat a horse"
We also use could to say that something is possible now or in the future:
For instance,
Slyvia says, 'The phone is ringing. It could be Gerald"
Lesley replies, 'I don't know when he'll be here, he could arrive at anytime'
In these sentences, 'could' is similar to 'might.'
'The phone is ringing, it might be Gerald'
Compare 'could do' and 'could have done':
'I'm so tired. I could sleep for days' in the present tense.
Or, 'I was so tired. I could have slept for days' in the past tense.
Usually, we use 'could have done' for things which were possible but did not happen:
'Gerald cut himself doing the gardening yesterday, but he's alright. He needs to be more careful, he could have hurt himself badly.'
Sometimes could also means, 'would be able to':
We could go stay in a hotel if we had enough money. Meaning (we would be able to stay in a hotel.)
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14.08.2010
© 2010 Financial Times Deutschland
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© 1999 - 2010 Financial Times Deutschland
Aktuelle Nachrichten über Wirtschaft, Politik, Finanzen und Börsen
Börsen- und Finanzmarktdaten:
Bereitstellung der Kurs- und Marktinformationen erfolgt durch die Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG. Es wird keine Haftung für die Richtigkeit der Angaben übernommen!
Über FTD.de | Impressum | Datenschutz | Disclaimer | Mediadaten | E-Mail an FTD | Sitemap | Hilfe | Archiv
Mit ICRA gekennzeichnet
VW | Siemens | Apple | Gold | MBA | Business English | IQ-Test | Gehaltsrechner | Festgeld-Vergleich | Erbschaftssteuer
G+J Glossar
Partner-Angebote