I have to use can or could?





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I wanted to tell the person that we can ship the package instead of they come to us.




Could you please help to provide us the address?
Our team could ship the package to you.




The first "could" is correct but the second, I'm not sure.



Please advise.



I had read the http://www.yourdictionary.com/could but I couldn't find the same situation.










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    This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
    – only_pro
    2 days ago



















up vote
1
down vote

favorite












I wanted to tell the person that we can ship the package instead of they come to us.




Could you please help to provide us the address?
Our team could ship the package to you.




The first "could" is correct but the second, I'm not sure.



Please advise.



I had read the http://www.yourdictionary.com/could but I couldn't find the same situation.










share|improve this question







New contributor




yuu is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
















  • 1




    This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
    – only_pro
    2 days ago















up vote
1
down vote

favorite









up vote
1
down vote

favorite











I wanted to tell the person that we can ship the package instead of they come to us.




Could you please help to provide us the address?
Our team could ship the package to you.




The first "could" is correct but the second, I'm not sure.



Please advise.



I had read the http://www.yourdictionary.com/could but I couldn't find the same situation.










share|improve this question







New contributor




yuu is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











I wanted to tell the person that we can ship the package instead of they come to us.




Could you please help to provide us the address?
Our team could ship the package to you.




The first "could" is correct but the second, I'm not sure.



Please advise.



I had read the http://www.yourdictionary.com/could but I couldn't find the same situation.







grammar






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asked 2 days ago









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yuu is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






yuu is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.








  • 1




    This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
    – only_pro
    2 days ago
















  • 1




    This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
    – only_pro
    2 days ago










1




1




This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
– only_pro
2 days ago






This is unrelated to your question, but this sentence sounds stilted to me. I could instantly tell it's from a non-native speaker. There's a lot of unnecessary words. "Could you please provide the address?" sounds much more natural. "Help to [verb]" is not a common construction.
– only_pro
2 days ago












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You can use either "can" or "could" in your example, but "could" is slightly more polite. Both are indirect ways of making the offer, since it is not literally about ability, and "could" suggests there might hypothetically be conditions that would make it difficult for the customer to come to you directly to receive the goods.






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    You can use either "can" or "could" in your example, but "could" is slightly more polite. Both are indirect ways of making the offer, since it is not literally about ability, and "could" suggests there might hypothetically be conditions that would make it difficult for the customer to come to you directly to receive the goods.






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      You can use either "can" or "could" in your example, but "could" is slightly more polite. Both are indirect ways of making the offer, since it is not literally about ability, and "could" suggests there might hypothetically be conditions that would make it difficult for the customer to come to you directly to receive the goods.






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        up vote
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        You can use either "can" or "could" in your example, but "could" is slightly more polite. Both are indirect ways of making the offer, since it is not literally about ability, and "could" suggests there might hypothetically be conditions that would make it difficult for the customer to come to you directly to receive the goods.






        share|improve this answer












        You can use either "can" or "could" in your example, but "could" is slightly more polite. Both are indirect ways of making the offer, since it is not literally about ability, and "could" suggests there might hypothetically be conditions that would make it difficult for the customer to come to you directly to receive the goods.







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        answered 2 days ago









        Greg Lee

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        14.1k2829






















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