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Take a look at this part of a conversation:

A: I got very wet walking home in the rain last night.

                     |1. You could have taken a taxi.
B: Why did you walk? |2. You could take a taxi.
                     |3. You was were able to take a taxi.

Which one of the numbered sentences is wrong? (WHY?)
Using 'could' confuses me! What's the difference between them?

Thanks in advance.

Saleh
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2 Answers2

1

Right answer would be the first one.Could + have is used when you want to show that something is possible now or was possible at some time in the past.So, You could have taken a taxi is more appropriate here. Could is used as past tense of Can and it is used (1) to talk about ability,(2) to say that something is possible or impossible,(3) to make a polite request and (4) To make a polite offer.

(1) I can speak four languages. / I could run very fast when I was younger.

(2) Learning English can be difficult. / You couldn’t use computers in the nineteenth century.

(3) Can I go home now? / Could I go now please?

(4) You can go whenever you like. / Could I give you a lift?

androidbuddy
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  • The question was not which is right; it was which is wrong. – Drew Aug 21 '14 at 14:11
  • Your discursion about uses of can does not seem to me to help a bit, given that two of the sentences use could, and the third uses be able, which in some senses is a synonym of can, but is not really in these uses. – Colin Fine Aug 21 '14 at 16:07
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You was is not grammatical in any standard version of English, as far as I know, though it is used in some dialects.

If you correct you was to you were, all three are grammatical, and possible in context; but no 1. is very much the most idiomatic, in the context of "past unreal": that is, things that did not happen, but could have happened.

Colin Fine
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