Ron, et al.,
It is, of course, incorrect to say "I could run" when one means "I ran," yet when one is comparing one's realized capabilities of yesterday with one's realized capabilities of today, focusing on the change in capability, it could be a perfectly correct way of expressing the fact that one was faster or slower yesterday, as in "Yesterday, I could run the distance in 10 seconds, but today it took me 15 seconds." The modal contributes to the shift of focus from the time it took to the change in the time. (I suspect that this is not the problem experienced by francophones.)
Has anyone on the list looked at how modals are used to change focus in this way?
Scott Woods
One interesting sidelight more to do with the problems of francophones
learning English is the following. They have to be taught that it is
incorrect in English to say, 'Yesterday, I could run the distance in 10
seconds' referring to an actual running of the race.
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