Teach me English!?

Question

My first langage is Japanese.

Situation:
score of boarder is 70 and I scored 75 on the examination.

What is natural expression in this situation?

I could pass the examination.
I was able to pass the examination.

My grammer book says: the first one is not correct. and the second one is correct in grammer.

I understood the difference of be able to and Can, but I guess we should say just:
I passed the exmamination.
I was able to pass the examination: is not natural.
What do you think?

Answer 1

Either of them would work and be fine gramatically. The msot natural is 'I passed the examination'.' I could pass the examination' does not work because that is future tense and you need past tense.

Answer 2

I passed the examination.

The above sentence implies that you were able to pass the examination, so there is no need to state that you were able to. However, there could be a special context in which you would say "I was able to pass the examination." For example, if you were in an automobile accident, injured your head and went into a coma, after you come out of the coma weeks or months later, you might have the occasion to say that you were able to pass an examination, despite having brain injury.

Thanks for learning English!

Answer 3

I could pass the examination.
I was able to pass the examination.
I passed the exmamination.

I think all 3 of these are natural sounding, it depends on what the speaker feels comfortbale saying, 9 out of 10 Red-blooded Americans couldn't pick the right one out of the three.

Answer 4

"could" is usually used in unreal, imaginary situations concerning the present or future. For example, the sentence "I could pass the examination" means that, if I took the examination, I would be able to pass it, but I'm not planning to take the examination. It's just an imaginary "what if" situation. Therefore, we cannot use "could" to talk about something that really happened in the past. For that, we should say "was able to pass" if you want to highlight the fact that you had the ability to do what you did, or simply "passed" if you want to just say what you did. You should only use "could" if you are imagining taking a test in the present or future, but you are not really planning to take that test. (If you are really planning to take the test, then you should use "can" instead of "could.")

Answer 5

Joe Japan 8,

Happy to help.

1. I passed the exam.
2. I passed the examination process.

Your deductions above are correct.

I was able to pass the examination = is not natural, because
'examination' is a 'process', a 'sequence', so you need to add a 'situation' to it, as I did in 2 above.

Exam or Exams can be used alone as done in 1 above.

I hope this helps you.

Be well,
Sayonara (is this proper?)

Answer 6

I could pass the examination means that if you were given the test you would be able to pass because you had the ability to do so.
I was able to pass the examination means that you have already taken the examination and you have passed the examination.

Answer 7

if i got 75 out of 70 on the test i would say "i passed the examination" only because most grammer books are teaching you to spear proper english the way its meant to be said.....but nobody really talks like that : )

Answer 8

I think you have a good grasp of English

I passed the exam is natural but if there was a reason why you might not pass but did anyway you could use able

eg. My alarm clock didn't go off which made me late to school but I was able to pass my exam anyway.

Answer 9

All three are correct English.

I could ... refers to a hypothetical situation. Since you've already done it, it's no longer hypothetical.

I was able ... emphasizes your ability to do so.

I passed ... refers to a situation in the past.

Either of the last two applies to your situation.

Answer 10

I was able to pass the examination.