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Spanish frequency list

No. 93 in Spanish

poder

"To be able to" or "can."

In a sentence

  • ¿Puedes cerrar la ventana, por favor?

    Could you close the window, please?

    'Poder' is used as an auxiliary verb to request a polite action.

  • Cuando era joven, podía correr más rápido.

    When I was young, I could run faster.

    'Poder' is used in the past tense to describe an ability in the past.

  • Aunque no estaba seguro, decidió que podría intentarlo.

    Even though he wasn't sure, he decided that he could try it.

    'Poder' is used in the conditional tense to express a hypothetical scenario or possibility.

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