 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
|
 |
||||||
 |
 |
 |
|||||
|
Grammar
Q & A Newsgroup
Click on Questions and Answers to see the newest messages. If you want to post a message or comment, you will be prompted to login. (If you are not registered, you can do so from the login box.) Remember to bookmark this page to make it easier to return to it. |
|
Go
|
New
|
Find
|
Notify
|
Tools
|
Reply
|
|
|
Member Location: kwang-ju, south korea
Posts: 775
|
Posted
The brothers could often bike to school when they were young.
Is this sentence correct? If not, could you explain why? Thanks! |
|
Member Posts: 15236
|
Posted
The sentence is correct because you are describing a situation that took place over a period of time.
You may be thinking of contrasting "could" in the past with "was able to." "Could" to refer to one past event that happened finally is not correct. For example, we would not say, "After waiting in line for five hours, we Your sentence is correct because it most likely refers to an ability to perform something over a period of time. The sentence, for example, might come from a passage like this: "¢ Life was better in the old days. My father and his brother lived in the country, where there were country roads and no traffic. The brothers could often bike to school when they were young. That is not the case now. Children can't bike to school any more because the area is criss-crossed by Interstate highways, and the traffic is very heavy. Children have to go to school by car and bus now. See these discussions of "could" in the past tense on the Grammar Exchange: http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...841094804#6841094804 http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...211082553#9211082553 http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...151016544#1151016544 http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f.../552104749#552104749 Rachel |
