Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Negative interrogatives with can and could

414b

Can’t/can not

and couldn’t/could not often occur in suggestions and 

advice-giving:

[talking about a houseplant with glossy leaves]

A: A nightmare to clean, because the leaves will fall off. They’re cactuses, 

those ones. Like, where you get all the dust. 

B: 

Can’t you get some sprays like anti-dust sprays

? 

A: Oh yeah I could do. 

B: Or can’t you just spray it with water? 

[A is complaining about travel arrangements made on his behalf by his

employer; BA means the airline, British Airways]

A: Stupid really. I’d rather go economy class on BA. Get there faster. 

B: Yeah. Well did you not say that to them? 

Can you not organise your own

travel a bit

?

A: Not to get there, because I said about coming back that I’d go any way

possible. Economy class or anything. But they wouldn’t let me. So now I

still have to come back on a different flight than Tom. First class.