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How to talk about ‘ability’? What words do we use to talk about ability in ‘present, future and past’. Let us look at the ways to talk about ‘ability’.

What is ‘ability’? |How to talk about ‘ability’

Ability is the capability or capacity of a person or some machinery to perform some action.

We, human beings have the ability of performing the actions like speaking, writing, thinking, understanding, analyzing, etc. Birds have the ability of flying, Fishes have the ability of living in water and swimming. All these are the abilities of different animals, birds and other living things.

How to talk about ability? | Learn about ability.

Let us look at the ways to talk about ability in the present, future and past.

We use ‘be able to’ form and ‘can’ to talk about the ability in present and ‘will be able to’ expression to talk about the ability in future. To talk about the ability in the past, we use ‘could, was able to/were able to’.

At first, let us learn about how to talk about ability in the present tense.

We use ‘be able to’ form to talk about ability in present. But, this ‘be able to’ form is too formal. So, in modern English, the usage of ‘be able to’ form is minimal. We generally replace ‘be able to’ with “can” to talk about ability in the present tense.

For a better understanding, let me give you some examples.

Examples

1. I ‘am able to’ speak five alphabets.

2. I ‘am able to’ connect the line.

3. I am able to fly an Aeroplane.

4. We ‘are able to’ reach the peak.

5. We are able to cross the river.

6. They are able to win the match.

7. He ‘is able to’ play the Guitar.

8. She is able to sing Korean songs.

In all those sentences above, the ‘be able to’ form is used to talk about the ability in the present. But, as we already discussed that ‘be able to’ form is too formal and it is getting replaced with “can” in present days.

We replace ‘be able to’ with ‘can’ now a day. Let us look at the same examples replaced with ‘can’.

Examples with ‘can’

1. I can speak five alphabets.

2. I can connect the line.

3. I can fly an Aeroplane.

4. We can reach the peak.

5. We can cross the river.

6. They can win the match.

7. He can play the Guitar.

8. She can sing Korean songs.

So, you might have noticed that with the replacement by ‘can’, the sentences sound more easier to say and pleasing to listen to. But, ‘can’ represents present tense or future tense.

In this case, which ability do we think are talking about? Is it the ability in the present? Or the ability that we would acquire in the future?

Ability in the future

As the usage of ‘can’ to talk about ability doesn’t give a clarity of the ability in present or future, to be sure of the ability in the future, we use the expression ‘will be able to’.

Now, we know what do we use to specifically talk about the ability that one acquires in future. Let us have a look at some examples.

How to use ‘ will be able to’ | Learn about ability

Examples

1. I ‘will be able to‘ drive a car after training.

2. I will be able to reach there in time.

3. We will be able to use the Bridge next month.

4. They will be able to make the arrangements.

5. He will be able to manage it by himself.

6. She will be able to crack the GMAT.

7. The new player will be able to reach the finals.

Right friends, I hope you have learnt how to talk about ability in the present and future.

In our new and extended blog, let us discuss about how to talk about ability in the past? What do we use to talk about ability in the past? Let us have a better understanding with the help of some examples.

Till then, take care…. Bye!

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