Modal Verbs of Ability

When we talk about general ability, we mean things we have learned to do, or things we can do. We have the ability to do them, sometimes because we have been taught or trained in a professional situation.

We can format our code as we prefer, as we are all experienced engineers.

This example suggests that the engineers can do as they prefer because of their experience and creative freedom. They have the ability to work in their own way.

We agreed that we could revisit the idea of using a linter once we had established the potential benefits.

In this example sentence, we are using indirect speech and expressing ability using could as the past of can.

We could easily revisit the idea once we had established the potential benefits.

In the future, revisiting the idea would be simple. We could easily do it. Could is used as the past of can, but also for conditional or future possibility.

Although it is not really a modal verb, we often include BE ABLE TO when we are talking about ability. This is because can is not always possible, for example, after another modal verb. Look at this example.

We won’t be able to revisit the idea until we’ve spent more time analysing the potential benefits.

Here we are expressing a negative; we can’t revisit the idea. Because we’re using won’t, we have to follow it with be able to. It is not possible to say won’t can.