When I Was Younger I Could
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When I Was Younger I Could
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When I was young I could become president.
Thread starter
vladv
Start date
Feb 26, 2021
When I was young I could become president/ When I was young I could have become president. Does the first sentence work? the second sentence as I see it looks at the past from the present-but what if I wanted to look from the past to the future using could.? Meaning ability-like I was able to become.
No, the first sentence doesn't work, I'm afraid.
Modal verbs can be tricky, and their meaning depends a lot on the context. However, in very broad terms, "could" + infinitive when referring to the past is used for an ability: When I was young I could run a mile in six minutes. To refer to a possibility, you need the perfect infinitive: When I was young, I could have been a pop star, my voice was that good.
In your examples, the first sentence appears to make no sense, since becoming president is not an ability in any ordinary sense. In the second sentence, all we can tell is that the possibility existed in the past. Without other information, we cannot tell whether it was possible for you to become president there and then, or whether it was a possibility that you could become president in the future if you followed a certain path. There is nothing to say when this future might be; perhaps you are now 40; the same language would be used whether you would have become president when you were 30 or whether you would become president when you are 50.
Modal verbs can be tricky, and their meaning depends a lot on the context. However, in very broad terms, "could" + infinitive when referring to the past is used for an ability: When I was young I could run a mile in six minutes. To refer to a possibility, you need the perfect infinitive: When I was young, I could have been a pop star, my voice was that good.
In your examples, the first sentence appears to make no sense, since becoming president is not an ability in any ordinary sense. In the second sentence, all we can tell is that the possibility existed in the past. Without other information, we cannot tell whether it was possible for you to become president there and then, or whether it was a possibility that you could become president in the future if you followed a certain path. There is nothing to say when this future might be; perhaps you are now 40; the same language would be used whether you would have become president when you were 30 or whether you would become president when you are 50.
Yes, that is a use of "could + infinitive. it is not nearly as common as could + infinitive referring to an ability, though..
Yes, that is a use of "could + infinitive. it is not nearly as common as could + infinitive referring to an ability, though..
so could and might when in the past have the same meaning sometimes?
There is a lot of overlap between could/might, can/may and between may/might, but don't think of them as synonyms, and which verb or verbs you can use depends very much on the situation.
Without any context. "can" suggests actual knowledge (it is sometimes dangerous) whereas "may" only indicates possibility, but there is always context, and context might well change the meaning.
Without any context. "can" suggests actual knowledge (it is sometimes dangerous) whereas "may" only indicates possibility, but there is always context, and context might well change the meaning.
could you plese provide the context?
No. You have to provide context for sentences you want to ask about. There is very little point in discussing English sentences without context, particularly when they use modal verbs. If you have read something and are wondering why the writer has chosen one verb and not another, or whether another verb could have been used instead, we will try to answer. If you have a particular situation you are trying to talk or write about, and are having difficulty in deciding which word to use, we can help you there as well. But the context has to come first. Don't try thinking of sentences and then wondering what context you can use them in.
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Употребите модальные глаголы could , should, ought to там, где необходимо.
When I was young I could become president. | WordReference Forums
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When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often called "The Great American Novel".
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