be able to vs can in Third Conditional
Here's the Task 1 letter we practised today:
You recently went on holiday and your friend lent you a travel guidebook. Write a letter to a friend.
In your letter
tell your friend about the holiday
explain how the guidebook was helpful
say when and how you will return the guidebook
In the lesson, Slava took the opportunity to use an excellent Third Conditional structure but there's a tricky problem - can you see it?
"If I hadn't brought your book with me, I couldn't find the restaurant".*
Third Conditional
If + I + hadn't + pp, I wouldn't + have + pp.
The problem is that there's no PP (Past Participle or Third form) of 'can', so you have to use 'be able to'.
"If I hadn't brought your book with me, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO find the restaurant".
PRACTICE:
Think of a real sentence about yourself and post it in the feedback below.
e.g. 'If I hadn't learnt to type fast, I wouldn't have been able to write so many blogs'.
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