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José
¿CUANDO UTILIZAR EL MAY, CAN Y COULD?
Mar 8, 2016 2:36 AM
Answers · 2
2
--2 of 2--
"May":
1) Para pedir o dar permiso.
"May I go to the bathroom?" -- "Yes, you may."
"I didn't know that you draw. May I look through your sketch book?"
(Esto es una manera de hablar muy formal y muy correcto gramaticalmente. Te sonarás muy educado cuando hablas así. Pero la palabra más coloquial que oirás la mayoría del tiempo es "Can." "Can I got to the bathroom?" "Can I look through your sketchbook?")
2) Para indicar posibilidad, para indicar que algo podría occurir pero no con seguridad.
"I may go to the store later."
"He may arrive as early as 9:00, depending on when he gets out of work."
3) Para expresar algo lo que no quieres decir inequívocamente
"He may be the worst president we've ever had."
"She may be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."
(A propósito, con estas dos últimas utilizaciónes, "might" se puede sustuitir para "may" y la oración tendrá el mismo significado. Son equivalentes: "I might go to the store later." "He might be the worst president we've ever had.")
March 9, 2016
1
--1 of 2--
(Voy a tratar de responder en español, así que lo siento si comito erores, espero que puedas entenderme bastante bien).
"Could":
1) Para expresar posibilidad; para hablar de algo que no es seguro pero podría ser.
"He could win the election, but it depends on how well he does in these next few primaries."
"Do you think those two are dating?" "Could be." (En otras palabras, "Maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure."
2) Para expresar habilidad.
"I was so high up, I could see the entire city from where I was standing." (I *was able to* see)
"After the hip surgery, he couldn't walk for days." (He *was not able to* walk)
3) Para dar una sugerencia.
"What do you think I should do?" "Well, you could call him and apologize, or you could just do nothing."
"If he wants to win over Latino voters, he could spend more time talking about immigration issues."
"Can":
1) Para expresar habilidad, como una traducción directa, mas o menos, del verbo "poder."
"I can drop by the store later if you need me to." ("I *am able to* drop by the store later...")
"I can't see anything." (I *am not able to* see anything.)
"We can barely look at each other after what happened." (We *are barely able to* look at each other...")
2) Para pedir o dar permiso.
"Can I take a look at your paper?"
"Hey, you baked cookies! Can i have some?"
"Can I borrow your pencil?"
(Esto es un utilizado coloquial y es técnicamente es incorrecto gramaticalmente, pero todos lo usan en esta manera).
3) Esto último utilizado lo cual oyes a veces no estoy totalmente seguro cómo describir, pero es algo como así expresar tendencia, pero no necesariamente todo el tiempo, sólo a ratos.
"He can be really annoying sometimes."
"You can be really oblivious sometimes, you know that?"
"He can be slow at times, but he's a smart kid."
March 9, 2016
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José
Language Skills
English, Spanish
Learning Language
English
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