General English Level 3 V 3

UNIT 01 My Education TOPIC 03 How did you learn that?

	LANGUAGE FOCUS 02 Talking about ability
	Find out how to talk about the things you can do, and how well you can do them.

1. Can, good at, know how to

Philip and Maria say:
Philip:	I can play golf quite well too.
Philip:	…and I know how to play baseball.
	(Philip can play baseball.)
Maria:	I'm good at basketball and volleyball.
	(Maria can play basketball and volleyball well.)
Maria:	I'm hopeless at tennis…
	(Maria plays tennis very badly.)

We use know how to/don't know how to to say we can or can't do something.
We use good at/bad at to say how well we do something.
We also use hopeless at to say we do something very badly.

I You They We	can	play	golf. table tennis.
	know how to
	can't
	don't know how to
I	am good at
	am not good at
	am hopeless at

Examples

1	Read the examples.
2	Listen to the examples.
3	Practise saying the examples. Use the Pause button.

I know how to play piano.
They can play golf quite well.
She's good at swimming.
He's very bad at football.
We can't swim!

2. Could, knew how to

When we are talking about the past, we use could/couldn't and knew how to/didn't know how to .

Maria says:
Maria:	I could swim when I was five.
Maria:	I didn't know how to breathe in the water…

I	could	cook	when	I was a child.
	couldn't
	knew how to
	didn't know how to

Examples

1	Read the examples.
2	Listen to the examples.
3	Practise saying the examples. Use the Pause button.

I could swim when I was three.
I couldn't walk when I was one.
He knew how to cook when he was a child.
We didn't know how to read when we were three.

Now go to 03 LISTENING How did you learn to swim?- task.