Talk:can be able

RFD discussion: March 2019–April 2020
A cursory Google search for "can be able" didn't yield any results about Indian English, mostly just people commenting how "can be able to do sth." is grammatically correct but obviously redundant semantically. Without a proper source I don't think this entry should be included. Wyverald (talk) 05:19, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete. Indeed, a news search found uses by a speaker from Papua New Guinea, by a Somalia-born Canadese minister and by the Korean president of Samsung Electronics, but nothing related to India. GBS yields some uses by Indian authors but many more from others, including native English speakers, going back to at least the 16th century (the trial of, quoted as saying, “So that if you can be able to prove that ...”). So that I can be able to support the request. --Lambiam 09:13, 11 March 2019 (UTC)
 * weak Keep. I found some uses that are neither Indian nor African. I've labelled it as non-standard. It now looks very SoPpy to me...any other thoughts ? Leasnam (talk) 00:48, 5 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Delete. SoP, for sure. Otherwise we would be able to open pages for any and all modal doublets, triplets etc. If this entry is allowed we might have to, mightn't we? -- However, the logical answer here is that the collocation of can with be able is in no way any different from the collocations of will, could (!), would, may, might, mightn't, wouldn't, couldn't (!), can't (!), and won't with be able. All these doublets indicate degrees of possibility to have the ability. The issue with "can be able" and "can't be able" and "could be able" is that they are less usually encountered due to them being a juxtaposition of two modal verbs where one is the infinite equivalent of the other. We find a similar situation with must have to. None of these doublets merit a special entry for any reason that I can fathom. A LGRIF  talk 22:24, 9 November 2019 (UTC)


 * The 2011 citation ("How can I be able to feel such sensation as pain?") is not well defined as a mere nonstandard variant of can. It has subtly different implications. Equinox ◑ 13:29, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
 * If you rephrase it as "How is it that I'm able" or even "How is it that I can", it becomes apparent that it's structurally different, with the inversion due to the question just coincidentally mimicking the expected word order. In the same way, "How can I not?" isn't an example of "can not". Chuck Entz (talk) 13:51, 5 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Deleted, though I moved the cites to the citations page just in case. - TheDaveRoss  12:49, 1 April 2020 (UTC)