Fundamentals Of English Grammar

I

7-4 Using could to express possibility

a. wuy tan r urcg m ciaasr. I

B: I don't know. He could be sick.

@) Look at those dark clouds. It could 8tal.t

raining any minute.

Loura can mean past aourty. (see Lnart '1-2,

p. 191.) But that is not its only meaning. Another

meaning of could is possibility.

In (a): "He could be sick" has the same meaning as

"He maylmight be sick," i.e., "It is possible that he is

sick."

In (a): could expresses a present possibility.

In @): could expresses a future possibility.

EXERCISE 9. Meanings of COULD. (Charts 7-2 and 7-4)

Directions: What is the meaning of could in the following? Does could express past,

present, or hture time?

1. I could be home late tonight. Don't wait for me for dinner.

+ could be = maylmight be. It expresser future time.

2. Thirty years ago, when he was a small child, David could speak Arabic fluently. Now
   he's forgotten a lot.
   -' could speak = was able to speak. It expresses past time.


3. A: Where's Alicia?
   B: I don't know. She could be at the mall.


4. When I was a child, we could swim in the Duckfoot River, but now it's too polluted.
   Today even the fish get sick.


5. A: What's this?
   B: I don't know. It looks like a glass bottle, but it cmld be a flower vase.


6. Let's leave for the airport now. Yuki's plane could arrive early, and we want to be there
   when she arrives.


7. When I was a kid, I could jump rope really well.

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