[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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Latest post Mon, Jan 28 2008 4:07 AM by Grammar Geek. 1 replies.
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Viceidol  +  469579 Mon, 28 Jan 08 04:00 AM

One of my grammar book says "can" and "could" cannot be used in questions about deduction of future.

For instance,  the following sentences are considered incorrect by my book:

Could/Can it rain this afternoon?

Could/Can we go swimming tomorrow?

My books say if we want to raise questions about deduction of future, we should say them this way:

Is it likely to rain this afternoon?

Is it likely that we will go swimming tomorrow? /  Are we likely to go swimming tomorrow?

I admit that the ones using "likely" are better, but could it be considered "wrong" to use Could/Can?

What do you think of that? Please give me your opinion, thank you very much!

Joined on Wed, Jul 11 2007
Taiwan
Regular Member 540
Grammar Geek  +  469580 Mon, 28 Jan 08 04:07 AM

I agree that "Can it rain this afternooon?" sounds quite odd, but "Can we go swimming tomorrow" is just fine! You're asking for permission or to make arrangements to do this.

Do you think it will rain this afternoon? Does it look like rain this afternoon? (The likely one is grammatically okay, but doesn't sound natural.)

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006
Veteran Member 19,681
Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!
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