poder means: to be able
Click to see all conjugation charts of poder in every tense

In this conjugation lesson we will see how to conjugate the verb poder in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the poder verb conjugation. For an overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation have a look at the Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see this Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Presente. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you may find additional information on conjugation in this tense and explanation of exceptions and special cases.

How to translate Presente to English

Note that the phrases in English provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

The Spanish Presente de Indicativo tense translates to one of the following:

• The English Present tense, for instance:
  ustedes pueden

  (formal, plural) you are able
• The English Present Progressive (or Present Continuous) tense, for instance:
  hoy usted puede

  (formal) you are being able today
  
  Notice that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (or Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to correctly locate the desired position on the timeline is a crucial skill for proper choice of tenses. So note the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while listening, speaking, writing and reading. After some practice you’ll be able to select the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Presente belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of its conjugated forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in the Spanish language, where each inflected form consists of two words. The verb poder has an irregular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. The first person singular has an irregular stem in this tense.

This verb belongs to the group which gets a change of the last o in the stem into an ue.

It’s convenient to think about this change as happening only in Presente de Indicativo, persons 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd singular and 3^rd plural, and whatever it influences later on (like the Imperativo) it never gets beyond the above mentioned persons.

And why does this change influence the other tenses? Simply because their forms are created based on the 3^rd person singular of Presente de Indicativo. So just remembering that this verb is affected by this change and that the change doesn’t propagate to other persons – you are able to properly create forms of three other tenses!

So in the regular stem pod change o to ue to get pued. But at least the ending is regular for this person. It is -o as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• yo puedo – I am able

The second person singular also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained earlier we need to change o to ue in the regular stem pod to get pued. Similarly the ending is regular for this person. It is -es as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• tú puedes – you are able

The third person singular also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained before we need to change o to ue in the regular stem pod to get pued. Also as in the previous case the ending is regular for this person. It is -e as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• él puede – he is able
• ella puede – she is able
• usted puede – (formal) you are able

The first person plural has a regular stem. So you need to use pod- as the basis for this form. Add the regular ending -emos for this person to get podemos:

• nosotros podemos – we are able
• nosotras podemos – (feminine) we are able

And again the second person plural has a regular stem. So we need to use pod- at the beginning of this form. Similarly add the regular ending -éis for this person to get podéis:

• vosotros podéis – (plural) you are able
• vosotras podéis – (feminine, plural) you are able

The third person plural also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained before we need to change o to ue in the regular stem pod to get pued. Once more the ending is regular for this person. It is -en as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• ellos pueden – they are able
• ellas pueden – (feminine) they are able
• ustedes pueden – (formal, plural) you are able

That’s it! The conjugation is now complete. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yo	puedo	I am able
tú	puedes	you are able
él/ella/usted	puede	he/she/it is able
nosotros/nosotras	podemos	we are able
vosotros/vosotras	podéis	you are able
ellos/ellas/ustedes	pueden	they are able

Click to see all conjugation charts of poder in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it’s important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for example sentences and suggestions.

Example sentences

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test yourself check this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PretéritoImperfectoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to poder visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for poder visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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