The Spanish Verb Poder

A very important Spanish verb is poder, which in most cases has a similar meaning as can or to be able to in English. It is an irregular verb and mastering its conjugations is essential for effective communication. So let’s review this verb forms.

The Spanish Verb Poder

As you know, any Spanish verb conjugation has two groups: simple tenses and compound tenses. Simple tenses consist of a single word (the main verb), while compound tenses consist of two words (haber + the past participle of the main verb). So we are going to focus on the simple tenses since you will only need the past participle to create compound ones.

Now let’s see the conjugation of poder with example sentences.

The Spanish Verb Poder in Indicative

You will see the verb poder is a bit irregular in some tenses.

The Spanish Verb Poder in Subjunctive

As you can see, the Imperfect has two forms in subjunctive. You can use any of them since both are correct.

The Spanish Verb Poder in Imperative

In Spanish, negative commands are done using the Present subjunctive forms. Simply say no + present subjunctive to form a negative command. Don’t worry if you are still not familiar with the subjunctive mood.

Even though poder has imperative forms, they are not used to make commands since they can be considered unconventional or artificial because poder is a modal verb that expresses possibility or capability rather than a direct action that can be commanded. In Spanish, the imperative mood is typically used for direct commands, requests, or instructions that involve performing a specific action. Since poder relates to the ability or permission to do something rather than the action itself, it doesn’t fit naturally into the imperative form.

The Spanish Verb Poder: Non-Finite Forms

The Spanish non-finite forms are the infinitive (infinitivo), the gerund (gerundio) and the past participle (participio), which is used to create the compound verb tenses.

Exercises

Let’s practice the forms of the Spanish verb poder.