Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use can in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, interjection, particle

Can means to know how to. Example: “She can speak English, French, and German.”

Examples of can by meaning

verbTo know how to.

  • She can speak English, French, and German.
  • I can play football.

verbTo be able to.

  • Can you remember your fifth birthday?
  • Animals can experience emotions.
  • Can you hear that?

verbMay; to be permitted or enabled to.

  • You can go outside and play when you're finished with your homework.
  • Can I use your pen?

verbTo have the potential to; to be possible for (someone or something) to.

  • Can it be Friday already?
  • Teenagers can really try their parents' patience.
  • Teenagers can be so cruel, and nicknames cut deep.2009, Annette Sym, Simply Too Good to be True, Greenleaf Book Group, →ISBN, page 4

verbUsed to form requests, typically polite.

  • Can you please come over here?
  • Can we try that scene again?

verbTo be (followed by a word like able, possible, allowed). third-person singular simple present indicative of can.

  • Importance of Identifying Leaf: Identify Plants: If we can able to identify leaf, we can easily able to identify plants.2011 November 29, Tai-hoon Kim, Hojjat Adeli, Carlos Ramos, Byeong-Ho Kang, Signal Processing, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition...
  • Children in need of care and protection can allowed to be placed in foster care based on the orders of the CWC.2018 February 15, Asha Bajpai, Child Rights in India: Law, Policy, and Practice, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
  • It can possible to design the ruleset refreshes that allow them to subsequently run at precise interludes and these keep informed.2020 May 22, Pardeep Kumar, Vasaki Ponnusamy, Vishal Jain, Industrial Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems: Transforming the...

verbTo be fine or acceptable; to be possible; (with liao or already) to be enough. Often used in conjunction with a variety...

  • Can liao, don’t need to use so much glue.
  • We have been doing this for 50 years, we have shown you what we can do.2015 September 5, Derrick Ho, Chew Hui Min, Lee Min Kok, Shea Driscoll, Nilanjana Sengupta, Melissa Heng, Ong Hwee Hwee, quoting Lee Hsien...
  • When controversial KOL Sylvia Chan resurfaced in March as a life coach, the general online sentiment was, “Huh, can meh?”2024 June 10, Kimberly Lim, “What’s With Singapore’s Surge in Self-Proclaimed Life Coaches?”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the original...

particleOK(?); used at the end of a question when seeking approval or acknowledgment.

  • I cut this wire, can?
  • Can you go collect them or not?1989, Eleanor Wong, Jackson on a Jaunt, or, Mistaken Identities, page 8, lines 1–3
  • If you care, then make sure you got details to back you up, can?2020 June 29, Poh Yong Han, “A Regular Singaporean’s Guide To Each Party’s Vision For The Economy”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the...

More sentences with can

  • You may be my boss, but that doesn't mean you can insult me.From the entry may
  • I don't think he wants to go. — Yeah, well, we're going anyway, and he can deal.From the entry deal
  • The policy covers all belongings and other personal things that somebody can carry about them.From the entry about
  • The downy woodpecker can be found in the same environments as the hairy woodpecker.From the entry the
  • You can visit me in the spring, when the weather is bearable.From the entry spring
  • The deposit can be in any legal tender, even in gold.From the entry in
  • Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a time.From the entry number
  • You can take the number 8 (bus) all the way to the airport.From the entry number
  • Can I borrow an eraser? — Sorry pal, I haven't got one.From the entry one
  • There is just one woman in town who can help us.From the entry be
  • (or, dialectally:) It is just one woman in town who can help us.From the entry be
  • While being impulsive can be great for artists, it is not a desirable quality for engineers.From the entry quality
  • Japanese IMEs can work with both QWERTY keyboards and Japanese keyboards.From the entry IME
  • I've got open orders for as many containers of red durum as you can get me.From the entry open
  • You should start dating so you can find a suitable husband.From the entry husband
  • The woman guarding us looks like a professional, but I can take her!From the entry take
  • I'll take a level as a fighter, so I can take the weapon specialization skill.From the entry take
  • Christmas comes but once a year, so we can but wait till then.From the entry but
  • I don't know how much longer we can last without reinforcements.From the entry last

Meaning of can

  1. verb To know how to.
  2. verb To be able to.
  3. verb May; to be permitted or enabled to.

Full definition of can

Questions about can in a sentence

How do you use can in a sentence?
Can is used as a verb, interjection and particle. For example: “She can speak English, French, and German.”
What is a short sentence with can?
“Animals can experience emotions.”
What does can mean?
Can means to know how to.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: can (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use can in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/can. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.