can and can't
Ability, permission and the first polite request — one small word that unlocks three different lessons.
From age 4First words →
✏️ The pattern
- Saying it
- I can swim
- Saying no
- I can't swim
- Asking
- Can you swim?
- Short answer
- Yes, I can. / No, I can't.
🗣️ Sentences a child can say
Tap any sentence to hear it. Every one uses words from a topic pack you already have.
🩹 What you will actually hear
The three mistakes that come up in every class, and what is behind each one.
I can to swim.I can swim.
Can never takes to. The verb comes bare, straight after it.
She cans swim.She can swim.
Can has no -s for he, she or it — a relief, and worth saying out loud.
Do you can swim?Can you swim?
Can makes its own question — no do needed. Move can to the front and stop.
🎯 How to teach it
- 1
Teach it standing up. Can is about the body — jump, run, hop, clap — and a child who is sitting will not feel it.
- 2
Animals make the negative safe. “I can't fly” about yourself can sting; “a dog can't fly” never does.
- 3
Keep “Can I…, please?” as a fixed phrase for classroom life from day one. They will use it every lesson for years.
- 4
Make a class can-do wall. Each child adds one thing they learned to do this term — it is grammar and it is pride at once.
🗂️ Topic packs that pair with this
Same structure, words your class already knows — no new vocabulary needed.
💬 Questions teachers ask
Can for ability and can for permission — same lesson or different?
Different. Teach ability first as a full pattern, and let permission live separately as the fixed classroom phrase “Can I…, please?” Children use both happily long before they notice they are the same word.
How do I practise can't without it sounding negative?
Put it on animals and on grown-ups. “A fish can't walk. My dad can't do a cartwheel.” The joke does the drilling for you.