Welcome to the Unit 2 Review. In this unit we have looked at languages around the world, the modal verb can / can't for ability, and the word order of English questions. This review brings those three big ideas together so you can use them confidently in writing and in speaking. The final task asks you to write a short personal profile about your own languages, so let's start by checking the key language.
We use the verb speak with the name of a language: I speak English and Arabic. We use the preposition in when we ask how we say a word: What's 'thank you' in Japanese? The noun is language; the adjective -lingual appears in words like bilingual (two languages) and multilingual (many languages). People who can speak many languages are polyglots.
can / can't is a modal verb. It has the same form for all subjects (I / you / he / she / we / they), and the main verb that follows is always in the base form — no -s, no to:
- I can swim. (NOT I can to swim or I cans swim)
- She can't (= cannot) drive.
- They can speak Italian.
To form a yes/no question, we put can before the subject: Can you speak German? — Yes, I can. / No, I can't. We can also use can in short answers and question tags: I can help, can I?
To ask about how well someone can do something, we use adverbs of degree: very well, quite well, well, a little, not at all.
- I can speak Spanish quite well.
- My brother can speak Italian very well.
- I can read German a little, but I can't speak it at all.
Wh- questions need a question word at the start. The word order is question word + auxiliary + subject + main verb. In the present simple we need the auxiliary do / does; in the past simple we use did:
- What languages do you speak?
- Where does she live?
- When did you start learning English?
- Why do you want to study French?
- How well can you understand Spanish?
- Who can help me with this word?
Remember: do not put the main verb before the subject (NOT What you speak?).
Common mistakes to avoid
- I can to swim ❌ → I can swim ✓ (no to after a modal verb)
- Do you can speak English? ❌ → Can you speak English? ✓
- What do you can speak? ❌ → What can you speak? ✓
- I am can speak three languages. ❌ → I can speak three languages. ✓
Writing strategy: Using capital letters
Use a capital letter for the first word of every sentence, for the pronoun I, for languages and nationalities (English, British, French), for days and months, and for the first word of every question.
Your writing task
You are going to write a short personal profile (80–100 words) about the languages you can and can't speak. Then you will add three Wh- questions for a partner to answer about their languages.