Timeline for Why can't the word "can" be used in future tense (will can)?
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| Dec 1, 2018 at 14:00 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @rackandboneman: Another verb that can't be "named" that way is to must. Interestingly though, although no-one seems to have a problem with using could as both a present and past tense form, the earlier ELU question Is “must” ever grammatical as a past tense verb? suggests that many native speakers are a bit unsure about must as a past form. | |
| Nov 30, 2018 at 19:26 | comment | added | rackandboneman | You can't even call that verb "to can", that's how defective it is. Wonder why no one returned it before the warranty expired. | |
| Nov 29, 2018 at 17:24 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @1006a: I suppose the writer thought it might be even more confusing if he'd dotted the i's and crossed the t's with "I could write and I was able to write could have the same meaning". But even as "standalone" sentences, they might not - they'd both mean exactly the same in the context of a preceding sentence such as I had one big advantage when I started infant's school, but not if preceded by I certainly wouldn't be bored if I had a pen and paper. | |
| Nov 29, 2018 at 16:43 | comment | added | 1006a | I think the "could" example in there is confusing/unhelpful. Why say those sentences have the same meaning, when the rest of the sentence explains that they don't always? | |
| Nov 29, 2018 at 15:34 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | My guess is it's extremely unlikely anyone could say exactly why the specific word can happens to lack the specific forms infinitive, future tense, participle, imperative, and gerund. Not all defective verbs lack the same forms, anyway, but I suppose at least sometimes the etymological background has something in common with other irregular verbs. For example, I don't hear people saying to be is "defective", but obviously there must be some kind of reason why Anglophones decided that I be a yokel was to be laughed out of (Norman conqueror) court. | |
| Nov 29, 2018 at 15:27 | history | edited | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 491 characters in body
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| Nov 29, 2018 at 15:22 | comment | added | iBug | Can you address the question tag (etymology) somehow? | |
| Nov 29, 2018 at 15:21 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 4.0 |