Being able to do something
I can fix the lamp tomorrow.
Left column: the order of the concepts, as chips — the slots you fill (who, action, thing, when) and the fixed words the language adds (a modal, a negator, a question marker). Click a slot, here or in the bar above, to choose what goes in it. Right column: the sentence those concepts make, the other orders the language allows, and the other ways to say it — each with what it changes. The rows are the languages switched on at the top of the page.
Try:
| Language | The order of the concepts | The sentence, other orders, other ways to say it |
|---|---|---|
| EnglishEnglish | can modal 'can' is one of the true modals: no 'to' after it and no -s ever (he can, never he cans). | I can fix the lamp tomorrow. Other ways to say it I am able to fix the lamp tomorrow. formal more formal, and the form that can change tense: 'can' has no future, 'will be able to' does. |
| FrançaisFrench | peux modal pouvoir + infinitive. Same shape as vouloir; the conjugation is the whole difficulty (peux, peut, peuvent). | demain Après-demain = the day after tomorrow. Je peux réparer la lampe demain. |
| EspañolSpanish | puedo modal poder + infinitive, for a circumstance: puedo nadar means the pool is open. A skill is saber — see 'Knowing how'. | mañana Also 'morning' (la mañana): mañana por la mañana = tomorrow morning. Pasado mañana = the day after tomorrow. Puedo arreglar la lámpara mañana. |
Hover a word to see which concept it fills. The verb is always in its dictionary form: every pattern here is built on a modal, which carries the person and the tense, so any verb stays grammatical in every language. Where the modal is an ending (Korean, Japanese, Hindi's 'can'), the stem is computed. What this cannot show is agreement beyond the modal — adjectives, plural objects — which the grammar chapters cover.
For the same idea said at three levels of politeness, see Compare.