Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate option:

"________ your son speak English?"
"No, but he ______ when he was a schoolboy."

• A. has to/must
• B. could/may
• C. might/can
• D. can/could
• E. may/must

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

can/could

The correct answer is Option D.

CAN means being able to.

COULD is the past tense of CAN.

In the given sentence the speaker is asking the person if her/his son is able to speak English.

The person answer by saying that he was able to speak the language when he was schoolboy (reference to a time in the past).

Thus CAN/COULD is the correct answer.

The remaining options are incorrect because:

HAS TO/MUST expresses compulsion.

COULD/MAY - COULD is the past tense, the sentence is in the present tense. MAY expresses possibility.

MIGHT/CAN - MIGHT expresses possibility and CAN expresses ability. It is irrelevant in the sentence.

MAY/MUST - MAY expresses possibility. MUST expresses compulsion.