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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

conditional

0Hi,02br
02br
00Is the only modal that can be used here for this sentence (looks to be a first conditional) is the modal "can" and not 'could'?02br
02br
00If you have money, can (not could??) you lend me it? -- To me, the 'could' is more tentative and perhaps more polite. 02br
02br
00Is this possible?02br
02br
00If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?0-
  

Top answer

12br 12blockquote 10Only the version above is correct. Both 01i 00can02i 00 and 01i 00could02i 00 are grammatical but I would say: ... 02i 00 Otherwise I get the impression you are asking for 01u 00all02u 00 of my money.

— Cool Breeze

  • 12br 12blockquote 10Only the version above is correct.
  • Both 01i 00can02i 00 and 01i 00could02i 00 are grammatical but I would say: ...
  • 02i 00 Otherwise I get the impression you are asking for 01u 00all02u 00 of my money.
  • This is due to there not being the partitive case in English.
  • 02br 00CB 0-
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8 Answers
0
0 01blockquote
01cite10Anonymous12cite10Is this possible?12br
12br
10If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?12br
12blockquote
10Only the version above is correct. Both 01i00can02i00 and 01i00could02i00 are grammatical but I would say: ... 01i
0
0
0Hi, Thank you. I have three more questions.02br
02br
001.Why is that we can't say "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend" but can say "If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend'?02br
02br
00I think those are the same forms except the that one or those ones used before are in question forms and I don't think it makes difference.
0
0
0>To me, 'is likely' denotes present time02br
00No, it looks01b00 into the future, 02b00as any forecast would, and this is one. 02br
02br
00Simple present or even present perfect are used in constructions which refer to the future. 02br
01b00Tense and time are not the same. 02b0-
0
0
0> "If I have money, I could 01b00use it lend it02b00 to my friend"02br
00This is poor English, not idiomatic, that repetition of "it" is very bad. 02br
02br
00 At Google Books: 02br
02br
00Your search - 01b00"could use it lend it"02b00 - did not match any documents. 02br
00Clear e
0
0
0>can you lend me it?02br
00Poor English again: BAD ORDER.02br
00See the hits at Google Books, use the site, you really seem you need it:02br
01b00202b00 on 01b00"can you lend me it?02b02br
01b0010402b00 on 01b00"can you lend it to me?" [this is the good one02br
02b
0
0
0Example: 02br
02br
00Do a search at Google Books02br
02br
05002br
02br
00 for02br
01b00"can you lend it to me?"02b02br
00(quotation marks are important)02br
02br
00 and you'll get many examples of use in books, as you see in the above. 0240
0
0
0Thank you very much.02br
02br
00I guess googling the books would be more reliable than just 'googling'.02br
02br
00Can anyone answer this?02br
02br
001.Why is that we can't say "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend" but can say "If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend'?02br
02br
00Why w
0
0
0>If I have money, I could use it to lend it to my friend02br
00Not correct. 02br
00Hypothetical/unreal "could" requires hypothetical/unreal ("had" or "should") in the condition, most of time:02br
00If I 01b00had 02b00money, I 01b00could02b00 use it to lend it to my friend.02br
01b00Should0
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