Question

How do you write the following sentence with a defective verb in the past tense?
“We could build the shed.”

Answer 1

Hint: A verb is said to be defective when it lacks conjugated form or involves an incorrect conjugation. This kind of verb cannot express certain tenses, gender or modalities by itself.

Complete answer:
In the given sentence; We could build a shed, ‘could’ is the defective verb. It does not tell us for sure whether the subject was actually able to build a shed or not. Also, the word ‘could’ is the past tense form of the word ‘can’. Hence from this, we can make out that the sentence is already in the past tense. Therefore, we need not make any changes to it.
Yet, there are other ways to write the given sentence. The following are some examples of other tenses for writing.
Present tense – We can build the shed.
Future tense – We will be able to build the shed.
Past Perfect tense – We had been able to build the shed.
Present Perfect tense – We have been able to build the shed.
The verb ‘could’ is used synonymous to the phrase ‘to be able’. Thus all different forms of ‘to be able’ are also different valid forms for ‘could’.

Note:
i) Defective verbs are also called modal verbs. These are verbs which are independent of the gender or the number.
ii) These words create scenarios having possibilities, capabilities, abilities, permissions etc. For e.g. ‘She is aggressive’ is a definite statement. Whereas, ‘She can be aggressive’ is a sentence that only shows a possibility of her being aggressive.