Our first song about modal verbs, and it’s a fight! A man and a woman try to show that each one can do everything better than the other.
Learn from Songs · Unit 8: Modals · A2
Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)
A comic duet, and a competition: can and can’t for ability (I can sing higher), could for past ability, Can you…? questions and short answers, and comparisons with better, faster, higher, longer, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
I can do anything better than Demetria.
DEMETRIA
No, you can’t.
SOPHIA
You see? You already know the song.
Before you listen: the song
New York, 1946
“Anything You Can Do” was written by Irving Berlin, the writer of “How Deep Is the Ocean?”, for the 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun. In the 1950 film, it was sung by Betty Hutton and Howard Keel.
The musical is based on a real person: Annie Oakley (1860–1926), a sharpshooter from Ohio who could hit a coin thrown in the air. As a young woman, she beat the famous marksman Frank Butler in a shooting contest. He was so impressed that he married her, and they toured together in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
In the song, Annie and Frank compete: whatever one can do, the other says they can do better: sing higher, shoot faster, hold a note longer, and so on. Each one keeps contradicting the other, with can and can’t.
The great competition.
Listen: the competition
PHILO
Listen once. Who is singing? What are they competing about?
SOPHIA
Listen for can and can’t. Can you hear the difference in pronunciation between can and can’t? Answer Section A.
🎯 Listen to the song: “Anything You Can Do” (Irving Berlin, 1946), from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun”.Find the recording on YouTube →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Anything You Can Do”, Annie Get Your Gun.Read the lyrics →
Can and can’t for ability
DEMETRIA
I can sing. I can’t shoot. Can you swim? Yes, I can.
SOPHIA
can / can’t + base verb for ability: She can speak Greek. He can’t drive. No to, no -s: She can sing (not She cans sing or can to sing). Pronunciation: I can /kən/ is weak; can’t /kɑːnt/ is strong.
Could: past ability
MARCOS
When I was five, I could swim. I couldn’t read.
SOPHIA
could / couldn’t = can / can’t in the past: Annie could shoot when she was eight. For a single achievement, use was able to or managed to: She managed to win the contest.
Better, faster, higher
PHILO
I can do it better. I can run faster. I can jump higher.
SOPHIA
The comparatives you learned in Unit 5 work perfectly with can: I can swim further than you. She can sing louder than him.
Sophia’s comparison: Atalanta’s race
SOPHIA
Atalanta, the great huntress, could run faster than any man. She said she would only marry a man who could beat her in a race. Hippomenes won by dropping three golden apples, and she stopped to pick them up.
PHILO
So he didn’t run faster. He was cleverer.
DEMETRIA
Or she was hungrier.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| can / can’t + base verb | present ability | She can sing. He can’t dance. |
| Can you…? Yes, I can. / No, I can’t. | questions and short answers | Can you swim? Yes, I can. |
| could / couldn’t | past ability | I could read when I was four. |
| managed to / was able to | a single past achievement | She managed to win. |
| can + comparative | comparing abilities | I can run faster than you. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who are the two singers in the story?
2. What are they doing?
3. What was Annie Oakley famous for?
4. What happened between Annie and Frank in real life?
5. How does the song sound?
6. What do they keep saying to each other?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. I sing higher than you. (ability)
8. No, you ! (negative)
9. you swim? (question)
10. When I was five, I read. (past ability)
11. She can faster than him. (run)
12. Annie managed win the contest.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “She cans sing very well.”
14. “Can you play the piano? Yes, I can.”
15. “I can to swim.”
16. “When I was young, I could run very fast.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Anything you can do… In pairs, have a friendly competition: I can stand on one foot for a minute! / I can stand on one foot for two!
Discuss. 1. Is competition good or bad? 2. Who was right, Annie or Frank? 3. What could you do as a small child that you can’t do now?
Write (50–80 words). What I can do. Write about five things you can do, three things you can’t do yet, and two things you could do when you were small.