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This well-known grammar trick to sound more formal with "were" "had" and "should" in conditional sentences.

Is it possible to use it with "could" (and even "might")?

"If I could do it, it would be..."

"Could I do it, it would be..."

Or does another construction have to be used? For instance :

"If I were able to do it, it would be..."

"Were I able to do it, it would be..."

Using "be able to" instead of "can/could" seems strange in this context to me. But I may be wrong.

Thank you in advance

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    I think you need to extend the examples to the end of the sentences so we can understand the intent .
    – J. Taylor
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 18:26
  • Thomas Hardy with the 'but' mentioned above: Could I but will, / Will to my bent, / I'd have afar ones near me still, / And music of rare ravishment, / In strains that move the toes and heels!
    – Tom
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 11:27
  • Basically, nobody talks like that in English unless they're trying to be funny or solemn, and failing in both. It's phony archaic syntax and it serves no purpose.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 15:59

2 Answers 2

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Both your examples are grammatical, but very literary. Few people would say them, and many would not even write them.

Even between them there is some difference of tone:

"Were I to ... " is not uncommon in literary writing; but "Could I ... " (in this sense) is a bit stilted. When you do come across it, it usually has the (equally literary) 'but' = ('if only') interposed, so "Could I but do it ... "

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  • Could I do it in the literary sense is merely: If I were able to do it. That said, I do agree with your answer.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 20:15
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I found a few uses of the construction in question.

Wikipedia's article about John Merrick (the Elephant Man) remarks:

    Tis true, my form is something odd
    but blaming me, is blaming God,
    Could I create myself anew  
    I would not fail in pleasing you.

This is a rhyme used in Merrick's sideshow pamphlet...

And this:

...could I have spoken in their language, I would have derived from them a good deal of valuable information... -- Herman Melville, Redburn. His First Voyage, 1849

And this:

But might I of Jove's nectar sup / I would not change for thine. -- Song: To Celia, by Ben Jonson

Those examples employ could I or might I to mean if I could. I found some other instances without that sense.

And of course I agree with the earlier answer that all of these constructions have an artificial quality and are not like normal prose.

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  • Nice answer.___
    – deadrat
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 20:47
  • And all of these are nineteenth century or earlier.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 22:59
  • Although I'm not sure what point you're making, I also wondered about the age of the quotations. It's certainly an archaic construction, but I also think that copyright laws and the dwindling importance of poetry in our culture will tend to make older poetry more prominent on the web, where I did my searches. I only read the hits for celebrated writers and ignored current and little-known examples. This might exaggerate the appearance that the form is disused.
    – Chaim
    Commented Jan 31, 2017 at 23:04
  • I'm making the point that this is an obsolescent construction, used today only in a deliberately archaizing way, @Chaim.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 17:37
  • @ColinFine We agree that the construction is used today only for an antique effect. I wonder whether Melville and Jonson also intended an antique effect, and whether in their day (as in ours) these constructions were artificial?
    – Chaim
    Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 18:20

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