You have to pass a test before you can get a driving licence.
(Essential Grammar in Use)OALD gives the following meaning for can:
- (1) used to say that it is possible for somebody/something to do something, or for something to happen
- (4) used to show that somebody is allowed to do something
- (10) used to make suggestions
Which one is the meaning of can in the example given by Essential Grammar in Use?
Answer
When I was a boy in the 1950s the schoolmarms insisted that may must be used for permission (your sense 4) and can must be used only for possibility and ability (your sense 1). But the language had already moved past the schoolmarms, and people everywhere in the English-speaking world used can in both senses.
Today the distinction is maintained only in contexts where permission and possibility are contrasted:
No doubt you can drive at 60 mph in a residential neighborhood, but you may not.
In contexts such as that you provide, there is no contrast between permission and possibility: because the license is issued by a public authority there is no possibility of getting a license unless that authority permits it. Consequently both senses are present in can.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Listenever , Answer Author : StoneyB on hiatus
