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What does “could” mean in “What meeting could I possibly go to?”?
Hello, I am learning English as my second language and I have a question to native English speakers.
When I watched The West Wing on DVD, Mr. McGarry said above when he was asked if he was going to a meeting to recover from addiction to alcohol.
In the sentence, why did he use “could” instead of “can”?
Does it make any difference if you use “can” here?
What meeting can I possibly go to?
They are just different verb tenses of the same word. “Can” is present tense. “Could” is often used in place of “can” for something that is more distant in time or less probable, or even to sound more polite. Many times whether a person chooses “can” or “could” is based on preference or habit.
By using “could” here, he may have been expressing the feeling of hopelessness that he can’t find a meeting, that it’s almost impossible to find one.
Most English speakers would not have had a problem with him using “can.” We wouldn’t even have noticed.
On the other hand, I’ve noticed a tendency in some speakers of English from India and Arab countries to use “could” too often, when they should be using “can” or some other word.
Red Wings Airlines TU-204 – Cockpit DVD – Flight Deck Action