We use ‘can’ when we want to ask people if they are able to do something.
Sometimes we want to ask them for help.
- Can you help me with my homework?
- Can you pass me the salt?
- Can you drive me to Eric’s?
Sometimes we just want to know some information.
- Can you speak French?
- Can you play the guitar?
- Can you finish your homework tonight?
To use ‘can’ in a question we need three parts.
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- The verb ‘can’...
- Can you sing?
- A subject...
- Can you sing?
- And another verb.
- Can you sing?
And of course a question mark at the end!
To answer such a question we can either use ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.
We can also say ‘Yes, I can’ or ‘No, I can’t/cannot’.