General English Level 1 GELEV1 Unit 05 Topic 02.doc  LANGUAGE FOCUS 07 Using ‘can’ Geng and Tomas say: Geng: Can you move your fingers? Tomas: Yeah. Geng: Show me. Can you open and close your hand? Tomas: Yes, I can but it hurts. Geng and Tomas are talking about what Tomas can do. We use can to talk about ability. Look Yes can. Can I you he she it we they speak...? play...? do...? No I you he she it we they can't. Examples Questions and short answers 1. Can you swim? Yes I can. 2. Can she play the guitar? No she can’t. 3. Can he drive a car? Yes he can. 4. Can they speak French? No they can’t. Sentences 5. I can use a computer but I can’t use the Internet. 6. He can’t play the guitar but he can play the piano. 7. She can’t get out of bed. She is too sick. 8. We can’t come to your place today. We have to work. We can come tomorrow. 9.They can speak English but they can’t speak French. 223 QUESTLANGUAGE