Name: How to Use English Modals? Can vs Could! Ask Alisha
Uploaded: 2020-07-03T02:01:45.000Z
Duration: 9 min 17 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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Present continuous

This week we're doing a pronunciation roundup, let's go!

Hi, everybody, welcome back to Ask Alisha, the weekly series where you ask me questions

The first question is from the wrong spreadsheet.

Okay, first question this week comes from Danny.

Danny says, “How do we say the 'TH' sound naturally?

Sometimes I can't stick my tongue out too much when speaking or, for example, when I

say something in a long sentence quickly.”

There's the “TH” sound, like in “think;” and “this.”

Whereas Danny's talking about, your tongue kind of sticks out between your teeth, but

it's not such a big motion, actually, so it's not like you have to be really dramatic with

how much you stick your tongue out, like “tha.”

Maybe when you practice, you can do that to kind of get used to how it feels but when

I say that sound, when native speakers make that “TH” sound, we're only sticking our

tongue out a tiny bit, a really small bit between our teeth.

It's like the tip of the tongue only, so with practice, that sound will get easier.

The other sound, though, with “TH,” is something we hear in a word like, 'the',

'the', so the tongue is actually, like, just touching the back of my teeth.

“The,” or maybe like the back of my teeth and the top of my mouth a little bit, the

way that the sound is produced is a little bit different.

So, when I say “think” and “the,” there are a little bit different sounds, so

If you're trying to say “the,” don't use the motion to pronounce the word “think.”

If I'm saying “the,” “the,” “the” with a really exaggerated “TH” sound like

in “think,” it's going to slow me down.

Maxim says, “How do you pronounce, 'I shouldn't have done it,' 'I couldn't have

done it,' and 'I wouldn't have done it,'?”

So, here, these are negative past perfect statements.

I'm using kind of exaggerated pronunciation here, “I should not have” becomes “shouldn't've,”

but a native speaker, a native English speaker, an American English speaker will say “shouldn't

a,” “shouldn't have done it,” “couldn't have done it,” and “wouldn't have done

“Wouldn't've” and “couldn't've” have that same “vu” sound, but again, it makes

it hard to say all of those sounds clearly in speech if we're focusing a lot on saying

those sounds clearly in speech, our speaking slows down, so we say “shouldna,” “couldna,”

“Shouldn't have,” “couldn't have,” and “wouldn't have.”

I guess it's sort of the in-between like the medium kind of pronunciation there but when

speaking rapidly a very fast like native level speed will say, “shouldna”, “couldna”

So, give those a try, “shouldna,” “couldna,” “wouldna,” “shouldn't have,” “couldn't

have,” “wouldn't have,” “should not have,” “could not have,” “would

not have,” “shouldna,” “couldna,” “wouldna.”

Now, follow-up question to this question comes from Sunil.

Sunil asks, “Can we use “could” for the future?”

So, I'm guessing this is talking about future plans, in which case yes you can.

When you're thinking about something you want to do or you're trying to decide what

you might do, you can use “could” just to talk about the possibility of something.

We use could to say something is just possible.

For example, “I could go to the beach this weekend,” or “I could sleep in late tomorrow

if I want to,” or “I could go and visit my parents next week.”

So, these are all statements of just simple possibility.

We're not saying, “I'm going to do that,” or, “Maybe I'll do that.”

We're only saying that it is possible so that's what we use “could” for.

If we're talking about future plans, yes, we can use “could” for simple possibility.

Next question is another follow-up question.

Bahar says, “My question is about 'can' and 'could.'

When I want to use these when asking for something how do I use can and could in the right situation?”

When you're making a request, “can” is going to sound more casual, “could”

If you're visiting a friend's house, you can say, “Can I have something to drink?”

or “Could I have something to drink?”

“Could” sounds more polite in that case.

“Can” is probably a little more natural since they're your friend.

If you are, however, at like someone's office, you're visiting a colleague you might instead

use, “Could I have something to drink?” or “Could I have a glass of water?” that

If you're worried, just go with “could” it sounds a little more polite.

And, Bahar has a second question “Are 'would' and 'might' similar a little bit and do

“Would” is used to talk about potential situation.

So, we've talked about on this series before a pattern like, “if I were blah blah blah,

I would…” like, “If I were a teacher, I would teach Math,” or “If I were rich,

So, we use “would” to talk about unreal situations.

In terms of like actual possibility, like future plans, we don't really use “would”

“Might,” however, yes, we do use “might” to talk about possibilities.

We use “may” and “might” to talk about something that has a fairly good chance, maybe

like a 30% to 50% chance or so of happening like, “I may study later,” or “I might

meet up with my friends for dinner tonight.”

The difference between “may” and “might” in American English in this usage, in terms

of talking about possibility, is that “might” is more casual.

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How to Use English Modals? Can vs Could! Ask Alisha

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