ToBE #38: Can and May

One of our subscribers thought it might be worthwhile to cover this piece of conversation:

Student: Can I go to the bathroom?
Teacher: You can, but you may not.

‘Can’ indicates the ability to do something.
‘May’ indicates willingness or permission to do something.

In the above conversation, the teacher tells the student, “You have the ability to (walk to) the bathroom, but you are not allowed to go now”.

I can do a lot of things (=> I have the ability to do many things), but I may not do anything this weekend (=> I lack the will to do it).

On the topic of ‘can’, a particular peeved project manager requested me to write about the rampant use of “can able” and “could able” by a lot of people he interacts with everyday. This was written about earlier and is available here, but it doesn't hurt to repeat:

• As mentioned earlier, since ‘can’ indicates ‘being able’, it is incorrect to say “I can (not) able to do it” or “I could (not) able to do it”.
• The following are correct:

o I can (not) do it. (=> It is (not) possible for me to do it.)

o He could (not) do it. (=> It was (not) possible for him to do it.)

o Mbeki is able to run 5 kilometres in one hour.

o Anwar was not able to complete the task in the given time.