How many people can you see
Hello everyone. I have a question.
Regarding the following two sentences:
(A) How many people do you see in the photograph?
(B) How many people can you see in the photograph?
Which do you normally use when you just want to ask someone how many people there are in a photo? Maybe, (A)? Actually, to me, (B) sounds like an eyesight test or something. What do you think?
Top answer
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If it is not difficult to see how many people there are in a photo, I'd just ask eg "How many people are there in the photo?"
0With verbs of perception (and 'remember' and probably a few others) we add an unnecessary 'can'. It's just an idiosyncrasy of English.
As you can see, he's really quite tall.
I can see why you find this confusing.
If you are close to the waterfall, all you can hear is a roar.
And, of course,
Oh say, can you see, by the dawn's early light ...?
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