Learn English – “How could/can you do this to me?”

grammar

What's the difference between these two sentences?

How could you do this to me?
How can you do this to me?

If a friend is stealing or stole from me, which would I say?

Best Answer

Can is the present tense, could is the past conditional. Depends on how precise you want to be. The infinitive of this orrid verb is "to be able to". Only English could feature a verb with an irregular infinitive. Technically, if the harm is still ongoing (progressive) you would use "can". If it was a single past event with no ongoing effect you would use "could".

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