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Originally Posted by louhevly  I agree with everything you say except that I don't think "It can rain tonight" is proper English, except in the very unusual context offered by cclaff.
Lou |
I'm not knocking you, Lou, but 'proper', to my mind, is too loaded a word to describe this ungrammatical use of 'can'.
'can' is used for a general possibility,
It can rain there anytime.
but not a specific one, as in this case. For that we use could/may or might. There is no epistemic 'can' for this type of situation. As noted by CClaff and reiterated by Lou.
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Beachboy wrote:
Yes, I managed to understand the difference! But I can't imagine a situation in which somebody would say, as a reply: " It can rain tonight". Would it suggest a specific mood on the part of the speaker?
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Yes, BB, it does show a specific mood on the part of the speaker as shown by CClaff in his/her examples.