Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

The following is from a retold version of F. H. Burnett�s �A Little Princess.�

Ram Dass sees Sara across the roof. He talks to her: �Can I come and get my monkey?�
�Oh yes, please,� said Sara . �But can you get across the roof?�
Yes, Ram Dass could, and a minute later he was in Sara�s room.

My question is about the use of �could� in the last sentence above.

Michael Swan says in his usage book that �[w]e do not normally use �could� to say somebody managed to do something on one occasion� and that �[i]nstead, we use �was/were able�, �managed� or �succeeded (in �ing).�

Should �Yes, Ram Dass could� have been something like �Yes, Ram Dass was able to�?

Best regards,
fw

[LucentShade]

I think in this case, "could" refers to the fact that Ram had the ability to cross the roof, but it doesn't mean "was able to" --the next part of the line establishes that he actually did cross the roof.