Can I use the helping verb can in the future? "I can travel to London tomorrow." Or I have to use able to? "I am able to travel to London tomorrow."
-
1You can use 'can' for future events. I can visit you tomorrow. You can drive my car next Sunday.– Michael HarveyNov 14, 2019 at 11:55
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
'Can' is perfectly fine in this context, though it is often used in a 'reserved' manner, by which I mean that someone might well say "I can travel to London tomorrow, (but really don't want to.)"
'Can' is not a direct replacement for 'Able to' in all circumstances - it works fine in your example, but to borrow Michael H's example, "You can drive my car" does not mean the same thing as "You are able to drive my car"
-
I'm not sure about that a 'reserved' manner. It seems to me the "reserved, cautious, tentative, provisional" sense is more naturally conveyed with the explicitly "non-Present" form I could travel to London tomorrow (but I'd rather not). Nov 14, 2019 at 16:27
-
@FumbleFingers Yeah, 'Reserved' in its normal sense isn't the word I was scrabbling for, but still can't think of the right one!– MikeBNov 14, 2019 at 16:32
-
In formal English, that second sense of "can", conveying permission rather than ability, is instead handled by "may". Nov 14, 2019 at 23:19
-
@MontyHarder: I'd say that usage is more "dated" than "formal". I asked the boss if I might leave work early isn't something you're likely to hear today (it's always ...if I could). Nov 15, 2019 at 13:21
English doesn't really have a Future Tense anyway, but I would say that in I can go tomorrow, can is effectively Present Tense. You can see this at the syntactic level by noting that the "future" version of I can go is I will be able to go.
But it's also true at the semantic level, in that I can go tomorrow effectively means My current status is that I will be able to go tomorrow. That "present tense reference to future ability" may be more obvious if we also consider negating contexts...
[My mother's dementia is getting worse...]
1: ... I hope she will be able to recognise me next Christmas
2: ... I'm afraid she won't be able to recognise me next Christmas (won't = will not)
3: ... I hope she can recognise me next Christmas (QUESTIONABLE - see below)
4: ** I'm afraid she can't recognise me next Christmas (INVALID)
Most native speakers would accept the "Present as Future" usage in #3 - particularly if extended to ...can still recognise me (which more overtly references the passage of time between now and next Christmas).
But note that most native speakers would not accept #3 if we change I hope... to The doctor says... That's because my specific example refers to [future] ability. In a structurally / syntactically identical example where the meaning is more about [present / future] permission, there's no real difference between...
5: The doctor says I can go home tomorrow
6: The doctor says I will be able to go home tomorrow
Because it's both a "defective" verb (with an incomplete conjugation) and a "modal" (auxiliary verb expressing necessity or possibility), can is a difficult word to master in English. There's too much to cover in a single Answer here on ELL, but I'll just point out that in most contexts, the meanings of...
7: The doctor said I can go home tomorrow
8: The doctor said I could go home tomorrow
...are identical. But sometimes, #8 means ...might be able, not ...will be able or ...will be permitted.
answered Nov 14, 2019 at 14:46
-
-
Thanks so no difference between. I will be able to travel tomorrow And I can travel tomorrow.– SdgNov 14, 2019 at 21:14
-
@Sdg: Normally there's also no difference with I am able to travel tomorrow. Mostly these are just stylistic choices, with no particular syntactic or semantic implications. Nov 15, 2019 at 13:48