bar conversation

No

fivejedjonNo

Not even:

I don't have a job, I could be anywhere.

PreciousJones Not even:I don't have a job, I could be anywhere.

I didn't say could was impossible.

You asked, "Shouldn't could be used in place of can?" and I replied, "No". In my opinion, can is the natural verb in that short dialogue. You could, however, say other things if you wished.

fivejedjon PreciousJones Not even:I don't have a job, I could be anywhere.I didn't say could was impossible.You asked, "Shouldn't could be used in place of can?" and I replied, "No". In my opinion, can is the natural verb in that short dialogue. You could, however, say other things if you wished.

Of course, but can you tell me the grammatically correct way to

The dialogue you wrote in your first post is grammatically correct. You could also write other dialogues that are grammatically correct.

You sometimes give the impression that you think there is only one possible 'grammatically correct' construction for each possible situation. This is simply not the case.