General English Level 4 Version 2.1 © 2004 acl Pty Ltd GELEV4 Unit 02 Topic 01.doc Rock climbing Heli-skiing White water rafting Equipment Place Ability Other word LANGUAGE FOCUS 04 Talking about ability The magazine article says: …you must know how to ski or snowboard well … …you have to be able to swim. …if you can move quickly… …if you are unable to make instant decisions ... We can use these words to show our ability / inability to do something. ABILITY INABILITY know how to don't know how to can can't be able to be unable to/not be able to I can scuba dive = I am able to scuba dive = I know how to scuba dive I can't ski = I am unable to ski = I'm not able to ski = I don't know how to ski We use good at / bad at to say how well we do something. I don't want to try white water rafting because I'm not very good at swimming. Information Can is more usual in everyday conversation than be able to. Can you speak English? Rather than Are you able to speak English? However, when we want to use the present perfect tense, we must use be able to. Can has no present perfect tense. I haven't been able to finish my diving course because I've been too busy. Information 46