No. 431 in Italian
potuto
"Potuto" means "been able to" (past participle of "potere").
In a sentence
Non ho potuto venire alla festa ieri.
I couldn't come to the party yesterday.
In this sentence, 'potuto' is used as the past participle of 'potere', representing a lack of ability in the past combined with the auxiliary verb 'avere'.
Hai mai potuto risolvere quel problema?
Have you ever been able to solve that problem?
Here, 'potuto' again serves as the past participle of 'potere', inquiring about someone's ability in a specific situation in the past, using the auxiliary verb 'avere'.
Se l'avessi saputo prima, avrei potuto aiutarti.
If I had known earlier, I could have helped you.
In this conditional sentence, 'potuto' is part of the conditional perfect form of 'potere', indicating a potential action that could have happened under different circumstances.
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