MichaelLu2000
Member
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2019
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- Taiwan
- Current Location
- Taiwan
I know they are of different tenses. But can and will be able to ARE interchangeable, while “can’t” and “won’t be able to” ARE NOT interchangeable.You're still missing the fact that "can" is the present simple and "will be able to" is the future voice. Of course they're not interchangeable!
If it stops raining tonight, we can play basketball in the park=If it stops raining tonight, we will be able to play basketball in the park.
If it rains tonight, we won’t be able to play basketball in the park (you can’t use “can’t”)
See the obvious difference?
In the first example, both can and will be able to are fine even though they are different tenses, and a future time point (tonight) is mentioned.
In the second, only “won’t be able to” can be used.
Also, you miss the point that in my original sentence of this post: If you put some ingredients in the refrigerator tonight, I **can**cook tomorrow night.
I obviously use the present tense “can” even though the cooking is going to happen tomorrow night, and another native speaker just says this sentence is fine.
It’s the perfect example of the interchangeability of “can” and “won’t be able to” when the time point is obviously future, so I really don’t understand why you don’t think that can and will be able to are interchangeable.