私はあなたの次の試合を見る事が出来ますか。

English Translation

Can I watch your next game?

Is the use of 「出来る」 correct in this case? I tend to think of 出来る as “able to do” rather than “allowed to do”.

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@mike-lima
私はあなたの次の試合を見る事が出来ますか is totally understandable, and some native speakers spell like this. But the Agency for Cultural Affairs under the Ministry of Education (the regulator of Kanji/Hiragana usage) recommends to always spell できる in Hiragana. For more information about the latest information, please refer to the official 常用漢字表.

There is no difference between “be able to do X” and “be allowed to do X” in Japanese. We simply don’t distinguish them because they mean “to have the potential or probability”: the former is attributed to one’s internal ability whereas the latter is to an external factor. Therefore, both of them should be できる, not 出来る.

The Kanji 出来 is used if it’s a noun. For example,

  • 出来事 (pron. できごと) = event or incident
  • 出来映え (pron. できばえ) = workmanship or showing
  • 出来心 (pron. できごころ) = sudden impulse
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