Is it acceptable to use “could” with a specific event? For instance, “I could make it to the party yesterday.” “I hope I could get a higher grade last term.” “I hope I could swim last year.”

It should be, “I could have lifted the couch by myself yesterday”. You’re talking about the past, so you have to use the past tense.

1. “I could make it to the party yesterday” sounds kind of odd to me. If you had not gone to the party, I would say “I could’ve made it to the party yesterday.” If you had gone to the party, I would say “I made it to the party yesterday” or “I was able to make it to the party yesterday.” 2. I would say “I was hoping for a better grade last term.” or “Last term, I had hoped for a better grade.” you could also say something like “Last term, I was hoping that I could’ve gotten a better grade.” 3. I would say “Last year, I was hoping that I could go swimming.” or “I’d hoped I could go swimming last year.” or “Last year, I was really hoping that I got the chance to go swim.” Just saying “I hoped I could swim” sounds odd to me personally because it sounds like you’re talking about the ability to swim. I would say “go swimming”

Probably a more acceptable or proper sentence would be: “I was able to lift the couch yesterday” 🙂

The example in the post and the sentences you have written in your description are two separate things, but the difference is very niche. In the second person (and also third), the speaker is not yet informed about the potential of the subject, so the speaker can actively hope. That means "I hope you could..."is okay. However, when referring to oneself, you are aware of what happened, so you cannot hope for an alternative. Hope is exclusive to things you do not yet know the result of. You can wish, however. But in that instance, you would say "I wish I could have". Wish can refer to both an unlikely future event or an alternative past result that did not happen. "Wish... have" is the template for hypothetical alternative past results. In "wish... have" statements, you should use past-participle verbage, meaning "gotten" instead of got, or "written" instead of wrote. As for the sentence "I could make", that sentence is incorrect, though natives wouldn't care (and many wouldn't notice). Again, this is a hypothetical past-participle sentence, meaning you should say "I could have made...". Source: Am an ESL teacher

No - could have made - could have gotten (got- British English)

"Could" is just the past tense of "can". By itself it doesn't imply a hypothetical, just ability.

No, none of your 3 examples sound correct natively

Here's my take as a native speaker.   "Could" is the past tense of "can" and is used to indicate possibility.   *I could lift the couch by myself yesterday, but now I'm too ill to lift it.* - This is fine and makes sense. You were able to lift (it was possible) yesterday (and did lift the couch), but are unable today (it is no longer possible).   This has a subtly different meaning to "could have". The sentence *I could have lifted the couch yesterday, but now I'm too ill to lift it.* implies that you would have been able to lift it yesterday (but didn't for whatever reason), and now you are too ill.   So in these examples, "could" means you were both able to and did do the action and "could have" means you were able to but did not do the action. Both are correct grammatically, but have slightly different meanings.   On to your other examples. *I could make it to the party yesterday.* - This doesn't work. The meaning of this sentence as it is written is roughly "It's possible for me to make it to the party yesterday". This doesn't make sense, as you either made it or didn't. Assuming your intended meaning is that you did go to the party, it's better to say "I was able to make it to the party yesterday." or simply "I made it to the party yesterday."   It would also be possible to say something like "I could make it to the party tomorrow, as long as I don't have to work late." When the party is tomorrow, there isn't a definite answer yet, so "could" can be used.   *I hope I could get a higher grade last term.* "Could" also doesn't work here. There are a couple of issues here. I would rewrite this sentence as "I wish I could have got (or gotten) a higher grade last term". Since we're talking about the past, we need the past tense of "get". We also need "could have", since we know that the higher grade was not received. Finally, you can't use "hope" when referring to the past, because you can't hope to change past events.   *I hope I could swim last year.* Again, it doesn't work here. Two alternative examples with slightly different meanings: 1. "I wish I was able to swim last year". - This implies more that you were unable to swim last year. 2. "I wish I could have swam last year." - This implies that swimming last year was not possible, but not necessarily due to your lack of ability. Perhaps you were unable to attend a swimming event, etc. It would depend on the context of the conversation.   Sorry this answer is a bit long..I ended up thinking about it a bit too much. Hopefully this helps explain some of the differences between "could", "could have" and "able to".   Small disclaimer that while I am a native speaker, I haven't studied English beyond school.   Editted for formatting.

Could is perfect and natural for “I could lift the couch yesterday.” You’re using the word in its “able to” sense. It is equivalent to “I was able to lift the couch yesterday” and it’s more concise. That one is good. “I hope you could get some sleep last night” doesn’t quite work because the word has a conditional feel that doesnt work with hope. Could, should and would aren’t really compatible with hope. This isn’t a 100% solid rule but generally it’s never the best word for that situation. I hope you did, I hope you can, I hope you will, I hope you do, great. Could/should/would, not right for that situation. I hope you were able to get some sleep last night, or I hope you can get some sleep tonight.

There's nothing wrong with "I could make it to the party yesterday" if you in fact made it to the party although the only point in saying such a thing would be in a large sentence like "I'm glad I could make it to the party yesterday". If you didn't make it, then it would be "I could have made it to the party". "I hope I could get a higher grade last term" makes no sense. You can't hope for a thing that has already not happened. Same thing with "I hope I could swim..."

There are different ways to use "could", and I think you are mixing them up.  1. "could" is the past simple of the modal verb "can", expressing *ability* in the past: I could lift the couch yesterday, but I can't today. I could make it to the last party, but I can't make it to the next one. I could run really fast when I was a child.  2. "could" is used as a modal verb expressing *ability* in irreal situations: I hoped I could pass the test, but I didn't. I had hoped I could swim on holiday last year, but the pool was closed the whole time. Note that you need the correct past form of "hope" in these examples as you are describing situations in the past (and the hope was in the past). For situations in the present and future, use "can": I hope (in the present) I can pass the next test (in the future). And you don't need "hope" at all but would generally need to use present perfect (I could have passed the test, but I didn't study hard enough. We could have swum, but the pool was closed). 3. "could" can also be used as a modal verb to express *possibility* in the future (it could rain tomorrow. I could pass the test, if I study hard) or to make suggestions (we could go to the cinema).

The way you’re using “could” seems off in your examples. I don’t know the exact way to explain why or how but here’s how I would word these. “I was able to make it to the party yesterday.” In the second example I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, either, “I hope I can get a higher grade than I got last term.” Or “I wish I could have gotten a higher grade last term.” In your third example you’re mixing present tense and past tense and should be worded like this: “I wish I could have swam last year.” Or, “I wish I could have gone swimming last year.” I’m sure someone will give you a better explanation as far is sentence structure goes, but hopefully this helps in the mean time.

No, it sounds very weird to “hope” for something in the past because it inherently expresses a desire for a future outcome. Better: *I hoped to get a higher grade last year.* *I hoped to swim last year.*

It seems fine to me. (USA) As in, “When I was younger, I could bench press 250, but not these days.” Or, “Sorry I couldn’t make it to the party yesterday.”

They all seem fine to me except the last one, which is weird, because "I had hoped you could get some sleep last night" sounds perfectly normal, bur "I hope you could get some sleep last night" sounds completely wrong

Since your examples are talking about the past, you need to change that verb form to a past tense. Also, when you hope something, you’re almost always talking about the future. You could use “I wish” if you wanted to talk about the past. “I could have made it to the party yesterday” (if you didn’t go to the party) or “I made it to the party yesterday” (if you did go). “I wish I could have gotten a higher grade last term.” “I wish I could have swum last year.”

I agree with other comments that it sounds just slightly odd, however this is not incorrect in terms of grammar. "Was able to" would be more natural to a native English speaker though IMO, which I think is why people think it sounds a little off. "I was able to make it to party yesterday" Using "hope" in a past tense sentence is a little weird because you can't really hope for something that already happened or didn't happen. For your "higher grade last term," sentence, maybe the example you're thinking of is that a term just ended, and now you're waiting to see what the final grade report was? If not then I'm not sure what that sentence is supposed to mean. But the way I would express that is "I hope I was able to get a better grade this term." Using "this" for a term that is already over kind of implies that is very recent, and the past tense basically implies that the window for getting a better grade is already over, but the results are not yet known. So you're hoping to hear good results in the future, basically.

It is acceptable, but your examples are not because you aren’t correctly applying past tense. “I could make it to the party yesterday”. In this example, yesterday is implying past tense, whereas the phrase “I could X” implies present/future tense. This is alleviated by using “could have” and changing the present tense “make” to past tense “made”. The acceptable sentence would look something like “I could have made it to the party yesterday”. “I hope I could get a higher grade last term”. This example has the same issue. “Last term” tells you this was in the past, so you need to make the rest of the sentence past tense to accommodate. “I hoped I could have gotten a higher grade last term”. “I hope I could swim last year”. This example has the same issue as above. “I hoped I could have swam last year”. Now, this doesn’t address that these sentences don’t sound quite natural, as most of them would’ve been phrased differently. However, they would be perfectly acceptable and understandable. It seems to me that you’re using “I hope” in place of “I wish” in your examples. “I wish I could have swam last year” and “I wish I could have gotten a higher grade last term” sound much more natural.

Examples in your title: 1. "I could make it to the party yesterday.” You could say something like this in conversation if you did indeed go to the party and it was unclear if you would be able to or not until the last moment. Example: You are talking to someone who knows that you had a lot to do before the party. They ask, "I know you had all those things to do yesterday, were you able to make it to the party?" You might reply, "Yes, I actually could make it to the party, I had fun!" 2. “I hope I could get a higher grade last term.” This works as an expression of disappointment in your grade last term if you change 'hope' to 'hoped', past tense. It also works as an expression of hope for improvement if you add the word 'than' - "I hope I could get a higher grade than last term". It doesn't work as written. 3. “I hope I could swim last year." Similar to 2 - either "hope" needs to be "hoped" or there should be a "more than" before "last year". "I hoped I could swim last year" means that last year, you hoped you could swim. "I hope I could swim more than last year" means that you hope you swim more this year than you did last year. Examples in images: "I hope you could get some sleep last night" - this is an invitation to share if you did indeed get some sleep. They do not know yet if you did or not. This sounds natural to me. "I could lift the couch by myself yesterday" - this is a statement that you were capable of lifting the couch yesterday, and it also sounds natural to me.

I would phrase your examples as “I could have made it to party yesterday” “I wish I could have gotten a higher grade last term” and “I wish I could have swam last year.” The opportunity for these things to happen has passed, so you should use past tense. To me “hope” has more to do with the future, so wish feels more appropriate. Also these are technically subjunctive phrases, but that isn’t super important to know in English.

Thanks for your guys’ great answers. appreciate it.

I think the examples you gave are throwing people off because you've added *hope* into two of them. With a bit of added context those could make sense. "I had hoped I could get a higher grade, but I didn't have time to focus on my studies." As a US English speaker, *could* does sound normal to me for a positive past event, especially showing that something was regularly possible. Example "I had a great time on vacation. We could lie under the sun every morning."

In general, you can't use "I hope I..." about something in the past, because it used when you don't know the outcome. An exception: If you're about to look at exam results, it's OK to say "I hope I passed" because you don't yet know *at this moment* if it happened in the past. However, you wouldn't say, "I hope I could pass." "I hope I was able to pass" is OK but it's unnecessary to include the idea of ability. You did or you didn't, that's all. You *can* say, "I hope you..." for the past, present or future, when you don't know if something is true or not. "I hope you could sleep well last night," is a little odd, and probably wrong according to grammar books, but it's no big deal. "I hope you were able to sleep well last night, " is better. "I hope you are well" - good. "I hope you sleep well tonight" - good. "I hope you can sleep well tonight" - also good, but I think the "can" is still unnecessary, depending on context.

If I knew there was some reasons someone might not be able to sleep, or that sleep was somehow important for what we were about to do "I hope you could get some sleep last night" is a valid use.

1. You wouldn't use hope with past tense. You would say "I wish" instead. 2. Could doesn't fit in any of these sentences. Consider using "was not able to" instead.

Looks good to me (usa)