“No dejes para mañana lo que puedas hacer hoy.” – Spanish proverb.
As the sixth most commonly used verb in Spanish, poder is equivalent to the English verb ‘to be able to’ and can be used to talk about abilities, capabilities, and probabilities.
Today’s post joins a mini-series of posts I have written recently on some of Spanish’s most common and useful verbs including encontrar, recordar, faltar, gustar and querer.
Poder also falls into an important group: one of the first 10 Spanish words I recommend every beginning Spanish student start with.
The reason I suggest beginners start with this verb is because it can be used to minimise the challenge of learning Spanish verb conjugations in the early days.
That said, this post isn’t just for beginners. I’ll also be exploring how poder is used as a noun and I’ll take a look at one question that troubled me for quite some time:
What is the best translation of ‘it could be’: puede ser or podría ser?
Language hack: using compound phrases
I recently explored the idea of using querer to form compound phrases. If you haven’t read that post or you aren’t familiar with the idea of a compound phrase, you can read about the idea here.
In short, you can use the translation of “I want…”, “I like…” or “I can…” in combination with any verb in its infinitive form to create a compound phrase.
Here are a few examples:
English: I can’t go with you.
Español: No puedo ir contigo.
English: I can help you with that.
Español: Puedo ayudarte con eso.
English: Can I use your phone?
Español: ¿Puedo usar tu teléfono?
The power of this technique is that you don’t have to know every verb conjugation while you are developing your skills. For example, if you can’t remember the first person conjugation “I help” in Spanish, you can instead simply use the conjugation puedo and then add ayudar or any other verb you know.
One thing to keep in mind is that “poder + infinitive” is a comment on your circumstances: what’s possible, permitted, or available to you — rather than on what you “know how to do”. So if you just want to say “I can speak Spanish,” the most natural option is hablo español. That said, it’s perfectly fine to ask “¿Puedes hablar más despacio?” as a request, or “En esta oficina puedo hablar español” to highlight that it’s an option available to you.
Here are the present conjugations of poder:
| Person | Poder |
|---|---|
| Yo | Puedo |
| Tú | Puedes |
| Él / Ella | Puede |
| Nosotros | Podemos |
| Vosotros | Podéis |
| Ellos | Pueden |
Spend some time committing these conjugations to memory. These and the conjugations in the next section will be very helpful later.
Poder’s irregular preterite
Poder is very similar to the verb querer as you can use it in compound phrases and it has a very irregular past simple.
Just as you can use the present conjugations of poder in compound phrases to shortcut the learning curve, you can use the past simple conjugations of this verb to simplify talking about the past.
Here are the conjugations of poder in the past simple:
| Person | Poder |
|---|---|
| Yo | Pude |
| Tú | Pudiste |
| Él / Ella | Pudo |
| Nosotros | Pudimos |
| Vosotros | Pudisteis |
| Ellos | Pudieron |
For a learn how and when to use the past simple in more detail, check out this article.
Poder as a noun
As a male noun, poder, is used to talk about power, strength or ability.
1. Capacity or ability
Often used in combination with the preposition de, you can use poder to describe someone’s abilities.
English: His powers of negotiation are very impressive.
Español: Su poder de negociación es muy impresionante.
English: Her powers of persuasion are unmatched.
Español: Su poder de convicción es inigualable.
2. Power
You can also use poder as a noun to describe the power that an individual or government has.
English: You have the power to make a difference.
Español: Tú tienes el poder para hacer una diferencia.
English: The government has absolute power.
Español: El gobierno tiene el poder absoluto.
Poder as a verb
You will most likely find poder as a verb, and if you have been learning Spanish even for a little while you will probably have used it already in a sentence.
If you haven’t though, you will almost always find poder as the translation of “I can”, “you can”, “she can” etc.
Here are a few more examples to show poder in action as a verb:
English: I can finally say what I want to say in Spanish.
Español: Finalmente puedo decir lo que quiero decir en español.
English: I can’t go with you this weekend, I have another commitment.
Español: No puedo ir contigo este fin de semana, tengo otro compromiso.
English: She couldn’t sleep last night.
Español: Ella no pudo dormir anoche.
English: I wanted to finish the race but I couldn’t.
Español: Yo quería terminar la carrera, pero no pude.
Puede ser vs podría ser
In Spanish, we can use poder to form hypotheses. This is often done by combining poder with the verb ser.
However, a challenge I’ve encountered is knowing whether the best translation of ‘could be’ is puede ser or podría ser.
The temptation is to use podría ser because podría is the conditional form of poder and it seems like a natural match for the English conditional form ‘could’.
But, the conditional mood in Spanish is reserved for more specific situations than in English.
Specifically, we need the conditional mood in Spanish when we have mentally stepped outside of the current reality to reason within a hypothetical scenario.
For example:
English: Do you think this soup would be better with less salt?
Español: ¿Crees que esta sopa estaría mejor con menos sal?
English: It could be (perhaps / maybe).
Español: Podría ser.
In this scenario, the two speakers are speculating about a situation that would require them to go back in time and not add as much salt as they did, so we need the conditional mood.
Conversely, if there is a discussion about the possibility of something real and very possible happening in the current reality, we either need the future tense or the present tense for the prediction.
For example:
English: Do you think the soup needs more salt?
Español: ¿Crees que la sopa necesita más sal?
English: It could be (perhaps / maybe).
Español: Puede ser.
In this scenario, the first speaker might be in the process of making the soup and asking for an opinion. The answer is unclear, but they could easily add salt in this current reality if they wanted to.
Here are a few more examples:
Question: Do you think it is going to rain today?
Answer: It could be! (perhaps)
Español: ¡Puede ser!
Question: Is it a lie?
Answer: It could be the truth.
Español: Puede ser la verdad.
Your turn
The Spanish verb poder is a very important foundational Spanish verb.
You should get to know how to use this verb as well as you can. This includes knowing the past conjugations, how to form phrases in the conditional mood and make comment on possibilities with ‘puede ser’.
Choose some phrases from this post, create some of your own and use them in a Spanish conversation when you get the opportunity to do so.
How else can you use the Spanish verb poder in a conversation?
I’ve also heard the expression — in Spain, so it may not be universal: No puedo con eso. This means something along the lines of “I can’t deal with that” or “I can’t stand that.”
Hola Andrew,
Gracias a dios,
casi siempre puedo caminar cada dia durante el gobiernos embargo.
Saludos,
Christine
Gracias Christine 🙂
In the example sentence I wanted to finish the race but I couldn’t.
You mix the imperfecto querria with pretérito pude.
Why is this?
Hello! Thank you so much for the article.
I have a similar confusion with puede ser/podría ser. In the soup example, it is quite possible to make the soup less salty, just use more water. So can I use puede ser in that situation?
Haha, yes, Sayan, you have pointed out an obvious flaw in my logic!! 🙂 I said that we cannot remove salt from soup once it is in there, but you are saying we could just add more water to make it less salty. While this is true, it is side-stepping the more fundamental idea about the hypothetical nature of the question. The question “would this soup be better with less salt?” is already framed as a remote speculation rather than a real open question. In this example, they aren’t seriously considering changing the soup, they’re just considering what an alternative would be like. This play with a hypothetical scenario is what calls for podría. In contrast, for the other scenario, “do you think it needs more salt?”, that’s a real question where the answer is unclear but action is possible and the speaker is genuinely thinking about doing something about it, this is whens should use “puede ser“.
I just saw My Daily Spanish’s latest YouTube and she says that you should only use poder for 3 instances – physical capability, availability and permission. Eg I can’t reach the shelf, I can meet you on Wednesday, can I use the bathroom.
For the examples you have shown eg I can speak Spanish (puedo hablar Espanol) she says this is not good Spanish – this is a learned skill not a physical capability. In this case she would say – I speak Spanish (hablo Espanol) or – I know how to speak Spanish (se hablar Espanol) – apologies for missing the accents – English keyboard!
What do you think Andrew?
Yes, she is talking about a real pattern, but has overstated it into a rule that doesn’t always hold. With a learned skill, such as speaking Spanish, “hablo español” is good advice as a default. But there are situations where “puedo hablar” is the preferred option. It is perfectly fine to ask in Spanish “¿puedes hablar más despacio, por favor?” (can you speak more slowly, please?). Also, we can say “puedo hablar español pero no escribirlo” – this contrasts the difference between your ability to speak vs your ability to write. You can also say “No puedo hablar español ahora, estoy muy cansado“. And, then the permission case “¿Puedo hablar español contigo?” (can I speak Spanish with you?) So, language learning is fun, there are always exceptions. And, it’s difficult to define strict rules like this. I think, like a lot of YouTube videos and YouTubers (I’m guilty of this as well!), we’re just looking for something extreme to say because then we get clicks and views. The “Don’t say _____ in Spanish” is nice clickbait, it works regularly to get views.