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Anonymous

#522185 Mon, 02 Jun 08 10:18 PM

Hi,

Is the only modal that can be used here for this sentence (looks to be a first conditional) is the modal "can" and not 'could'?

If you have money, can (not could??) you lend me it? -- To me, the 'could' is more tentative and perhaps more polite.

Is this possible?

If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?

Anonymous

Modals, Conditionals

Cool Breeze

#522189 Mon, 02 Jun 08 10:26 PM

Anonymous
Is this possible?

If you have money, can (not could??) lend it to me?

Only the version above is correct. Both can and could are grammatical but I would say: ... could you lend me some. Otherwise I get the impression you are asking for all of my money. This is due to there not being the partitive case in English.

Cool Breeze

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006

Helsinki, Finland

Senior Member (2,964)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.- Mark Twain

Anonymous

#522199 Mon, 02 Jun 08 10:42 PM

Hi, Thank you. I have three more questions.

1.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'?

I 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.

You wrote:

This is due to there not being the partitive case in English.

What do you mean by "partitive case"?

Also, if you don't mind,

2. Why are they both acceptable?

If I have money, It is likely that I will be using it to lend it to my friend.

If I have money, I will be using it to lend it to my friend.

To me, 'is likely' denotes present time, whereas 'will' denotes future time; and I feel in order to form a correct first conditional, one should use a future tense in the main clause.

3. Why is it wrong?

If you have money, can you lend me it?

Looks the same as:

If you have money, can you lend me the money?

Anonymous

Tenses, Clauses, Conditionals

Marius Hancu

#522223 Tue, 03 Jun 08 12:58 AM

>To me, 'is likely' denotes present time

No, it looks into the future, as any forecast would, and this is one.

Simple present or even present perfect are used in constructions which refer to the future.

Tense and time are not the same.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Simple present, Constructions, Tenses, Present perfect

Marius Hancu

#522230 Tue, 03 Jun 08 01:24 AM

> "If I have money, I could use it lend it to my friend"

This is poor English, not idiomatic, that repetition of "it" is very bad.

At Google Books:

Your search - "could use it lend it" - did not match any documents.

Clear enough?

Marius Hancu

#522231 Tue, 03 Jun 08 01:28 AM

>can you lend me it?

Poor English again: BAD ORDER.

See the hits at Google Books, use the site, you really seem you need it:

2 on "can you lend me it?

104 on "can you lend it to me?" [this is the good one

[link]

Marius Hancu

#522233 Tue, 03 Jun 08 01:36 AM

Example:

Do a search at Google Books

[link]

for

"can you lend it to me?"

(quotation marks are important)

and you'll get many examples of use in books, as you see in the above.

Marius Hancu

Quotation marks

Anonymous

#522244 Tue, 03 Jun 08 02:19 AM

Thank you very much.

I guess googling the books would be more reliable than just 'googling'.

Can anyone answer this?

1.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'?

Why we can not say this?

If I have money, I could use it to lend it to my friend.

But we can say this:

If I have money, I can use it to lend it to my friend.

How do the answers to the above either contradict or strengthen the validity of sentences below?

If you have mnney, I can/could use it to lend it to my friend. -- Setting aside of two "it's" being inappropriate might be good I think.

Anonymous