bruxinha
Member
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2020
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Portuguese
- Home Country
- Portugal
- Current Location
- Germany
The sentence above was taken from an exam by a fellow teacher. (He's had a minor car accident and is in hospital now, so I have to correct his students' exams).
The original was: If you like, we _____ let you _____ (try) oysters.
The task was to fill in the blanks with the first conditional (there were other sentences before and after this one; I can post them too, if needed).
My question is: How does "can" sound here, instead of "will"? I have a somewhat strange feeling about it, but cannot explain exactly why it doesn't really sound that good to me...
"Can" may be used in conditionals, but it's more like a permission. For example: We can let you saty up late if you behave during dinner.
But in this case I have a strange feeling when I change the above sentence from "If you like, we will let you try oysters." (meaning we'll be glad to give them to you if you want to try) into the variation of can: "If you like, we'll be able to let you try oysters."
What do you think about it? Does it sound natural, is it still acceptable, or is it something a native speaker would never say?
The original was: If you like, we _____ let you _____ (try) oysters.
The task was to fill in the blanks with the first conditional (there were other sentences before and after this one; I can post them too, if needed).
My question is: How does "can" sound here, instead of "will"? I have a somewhat strange feeling about it, but cannot explain exactly why it doesn't really sound that good to me...
"Can" may be used in conditionals, but it's more like a permission. For example: We can let you saty up late if you behave during dinner.
But in this case I have a strange feeling when I change the above sentence from "If you like, we will let you try oysters." (meaning we'll be glad to give them to you if you want to try) into the variation of can: "If you like, we'll be able to let you try oysters."
What do you think about it? Does it sound natural, is it still acceptable, or is it something a native speaker would never say?