Question

Fill in the blanks with suitable verb forms:
A: I ________ play the guitar.
B: But yesterday you said you ______ play it.
A)Can’t / could
B)Can / could
C)Couldn’t / can
D)Could / could

Answer 1

Hint: The given two sentences form a conversation. ‘Can’ conveys the ability to do something. Could is the past for can.

Complete step-by-step answer:

We already know from the hint given to us that, the two sentences belong to the same context, that is, a conversation.
In sentence B, we see the mention of the word ‘yesterday’ which indicates the past. We already know from the hint that could is the past for can. Hence, we’ll be filling the blank in sentence B with could. Thus, we rule out option C to be a possible correct answer.
In sentence A, the person is talking of the present, as we see no reference to the past. Hence, we rule out option D to be a possible correct answer.
We already know the meaning of ‘can’ from the hint given to us. We can infer from the context of the conversation now, that sentence B is supposed to contradict sentence A. Hence, we shall be filling the blank in sentence A with can’t.
Thus, we conclude option A to be the correct answer.

Note: ‘Could’ can also be used as the polite form for ‘can’, but in the context of the given question, it is not applicable.