ABSTRACT
I couldn’t visit her yesterday, because I didn’t have time
I could visit her tomorrow if you let me take the car
Because of this, the German modal auxiliaries can seem complex, but they are easier to sort out if the various combinations of tense and mood with a following simple or compound innitive are treated independently and learned with their usual English equivalents. The examples in sections 15.2 to 15.7 are set out to facilitate this, and Table 15.1 illustrates the various possible combinations with können.
