Modal verb CAN

In my opinion the modal verb CAN is one of the easiest grammar points in English to teach. That is why I have not produced a post on this topic yet. However, this is going to change, as I am in need of one and I am going to share it here with you.

In this post you can find a simple mind map explaining the usage of the modal verb CAN. Then there are two speaking activities and an interactive quiz to give your students a chance to practise the grammar.

Having taught the modal verb CAN yesterday I added these two songs. Both of them are from British Council pages and they serve as a great introduction of the affirmative sentences and questions.

Here is the song I can run.

And here you can find a great song to introduce questions with CAN which is called Can a Flea Climb a Tree.

In the last week I created two mind maps about the verb CAN. However, I felt that the first one was unnecessary complicated and therefore I decided to replace it with this one.
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If you are interested in the first version of the infographic, you can download it here:
Modal verb Can explanation

In this part I would like to share two speaking activities. For the first one you need to download and print the following worksheet.
Can pdf speaking
Now you can choose what you will do with it. You can either cut the worksheet and give each student just one picture and ask them to write the questions with can below the picture. Then check their questions. Next, ask the students to stand up and mingle and ask their classmates whether they can do the activity.

If you do not like mingling activity you can print one worksheet for everyone and ask them to write the questions. Then check their questions and ask students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in pairs.
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[showmyadsa] The second speaking activity is called LIAR. Prepare 4 sentences with the modal verb CAN and say them aloud. Now tell your students that one of them is a lie and your students have to guess which one. Now, ask your students to write 4 sentences with the verb CAN and one of them must be a lie. Let the students work in groups of 4. One student reads all 4 sentences and the others write down which sentence they believe to be a lie. Then another student reads and so on. At the end all the students say which sentence was a lie and they see who guessed it.

The following quiz can help your students practise the modal verb CAN either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures and the sentences. In the second part, students have to complete the sentences with the missing words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Modal verb CAN – quiz