Is your son going to drive next year?

[jutfrank]

Rachel, you must stop using the word possible. It is clear to me that your use of the word 'possible' is different from other members' use of the word. This is leading to a lot of unnecessary confusion.

4. Does your son learn to drive next year? I don't think this one is possible.

All are possible. #4 is not very likely, but it could be said in some contexts.

The exercise also gives present perfect as an opion. Would it be possible to use the present perfect in any of them? I don't think so. I don't think even future perfect is possible.

It lists different tenses and asks to use the correct form. Present perfect is not possible but with the future perfect is this sentence possible? 'will your son have learnt how to drive by next year?'

Its possible.

Most of the time there is no context in exercises and there is more than one possible answer.

In some of my sentences it was not possible. In 'What does your daughter do tonight?' It wasn't.
But in 'Does your son learn how to drive next year?' It was possible.

It's possible in an unlikely context involving a habitual event with the new boyfriend.

Unlikely but possible in some contexts as Piscean said.

 

[emsr2d2]

I can, but it's pretty artificial.

Come on, don't keep us in suspense (or, as my grandfather used to say, "in suspenders")!

 

[Rachel Adams]

Rachel, you must stop using the word possible. It is clear to me that your use of the word 'possible' is different from other members' use of the word. This is leading to a lot of unnecessary confusion.

Could you please explain to me the difference?

 

[jutfrank]

Could you please explain to me the difference?

For you, a 'possible answer' is an answer that makes a sentence that somebody is likely to say in a situation that is likely to happen. In this sense, the sentence Does your son learn to drive next year? is not possible. That's why emsr2d2 said it was incorrect, and that's why the grammar workbooks that you use to study say it is not correct.

For us, a 'possible answer' is an answer that is grammatical. That means that the answer makes a sentence that could be an extremely unlikely thing to say in an extremely unlikely situation. Sometimes it's only the limits of our imagination that stop us from being able to think of a context that is possible for a sentence to be uttered. In this sense, the sentence Does your son learn to drive next year? is possible.

Do you see? Please stop using the word possible, because sometimes we take the word literally (as in the second sense above) and sometimes we try to interpret the word as you use it (as in the first sense above). This leads to you getting different answers for the same questions. This is confusing for you and is one of the many reasons that lead to your threads being unnecessarily long, complicated, and confusing for everybody.

 

[emsr2d2]

For my part, I always make it clear if I think a sentence is grammatical but unlikely to be uttered (by a native speaker).

We was horses. (Incorrect - "we was" is wrong in all cases.)
We were horses. (Grammatically correct but extremely unlikely.)
We were friends. (Grammatically correct and likely to be heard.)

 

[GoesStation]

For my part, I always make it clear if I think a sentence is grammatical but unlikely to be uttered (by a native speaker).

I'll try to emulate you, but it's highly possible I'll forget.