Question

Fill in the blank with a suitable modal:
We ________ play football today because it is raining.
(a)couldn’t
(b)can’t
(c)aren’t
(d)didn’t

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and understand what it's trying to convey. Point out the tense it is written in and then go through the options, figure out what they mean and in what tense they are in. We need to use a modal which is in tandem with the already established tense of the sentence.
Complete answer: A modal is a verb which expresses a necessity or a possibility. For example, words like should, would, can, could, must, etc. are modals. The sentence is in the present tense because of the usage of “today” and “it is raining”. “It is raining” is present continuous tense. Let us analyse the given options.
(a)Couldn’t- We couldn’t play football today because it is raining. Short for “could not”, it is in the past tense. We cannot use a past tense in a sentence which is in the present tense.
(b)Can’t- We can’t play football today because it is raining. Short for “cannot”, it is in the present tense. It expresses not being able to do something at the present moment.
(c)Aren’t- We aren’t play football today because it is raining. Short for “are not”, it is in the present tense. However, “aren’t” is a form of the verb “be”+not. For example, we aren’t going to the festival. On the other hand, “can’t” is used to express the ability of not being able to do something.
(d)Didn’t- We didn’t play football today because it is raining. Short for “did not”, it is in the past tense. “Didn’t” and “is” cannot be used in the same sentence to refer to the same event because they are a past and present tense respectively.
The correct answer is option b.

Note: Don’t get confused between options b and d. Option d “didn’t” is clearly in the past tense and we have “is” in the sentence which shows it is the present tense. “Didn’t” could have been used if the sentence ended with “...football today because it was raining”.