poder

Question

Hola:

Sé que 'poder' traduce como 'to be able', pero siempre tengo problemas entendiendo 'pudiendo' y 'podido'.

Por favor, me dice qué es la traducción por estas palabras.

Gracias,
Martyn.

Answer 1

It it the same as any other verb, Martyn:

with -ndo = -ing

comiendo = eating
bebiendo = drinking
pudiendo = being able

with -do = -en

comido = eaten
bebido = drinken (the correct irrgular form is "drunk")
podido = been able

There is nothing special about poder's forms. The problem is not the verb 'poder', but the auxiliary 'can' in English, which sometimes must be replaced by 'to be able", i.e. you don't say "canning" or "canned" to mean "being able" or "been able", because "can" lacks those forms, but in Spanish "poder" is normally conjugated in all tenses. In English you say "I can" for present tense, but using future tense you don't say "I will can", but "I will be able"; in Spanish you say "puedo" for present, and "podré" for future, so in this sense, it works exactly like any other verb. The fact that in English this verb does not behave like the rest is probably why you are confused.

Answer 2

Martyn said:

I get present and past participles with practically every other verb, I just couldn't think for the life of me how 'pudiendo' and 'podido' translate.

This time you have to blame your own language, hehe.

Answer 3

Learn them by using them, not memorizing their English counterparts, or it will take you forever to learn.

Past participle (-do ending):

(I thought she was coming, but she hasn't come yet)
Creí que ella iba a venir, pero no ha venido aún.

Creí que me iba a gustar la película, pero no me ha ..............
Creí que tenía íbamos a comer pronot, pero no hemos ............. aún.
Creí que lo iban a encontrar muy rápidamente, pero no lo han ..............aún.
Creí que él iba a poder hacerlo, pero no ha ................

Just fill the gaps, or try to make other similar sentences. Pay attention to the last answer!

Answer 4

I liked the quote that James-Santia provided. But I'm still trying to imagine how "pudiendo" might be used with "estar".

So would the following be a correct usage?

-Being able to multiply in my head, I can calculate the tip.

-Estoy pudiendo multiplicar mentalmente, puedo calcular la propina.

Or how about this one?

-You should help him. No, he is managing.

-Debe ayudarlo. No, está pudiendo.

(Dear lazarus1907 - You can't use something until you understand how to use it. Like a stick shift. You have to see (or hear/read) how it's done in order to understand it. OK, you could fiddle around with it until you've eventually figured it out, if you haven't managed to rear end someone first, hopefully...)

Answer 5

They are the present participle and the past participle of the verb "poder", like "writing" and "written" for the verb "to write".

Answer 6

Sorry - I wasn't clear - I know what those words are in relation to 'poder', but I don't know what they mean in English.

Eg, puedo = I can, but what is the English equivalent of 'pudiendo' and 'podido'?

Perhaps I'm being dim, but like I say I've always had trouble with 'poder'.

Thanks.

Answer 7

It's confusing in English, because as Lazarus shows, to go to the participle or past participle of the verb can, we using able. We don't say can-ing or can-ed (unless, of course, we are canning vegetables for the winter).

lazarus1907 said:

Same as any other verb, Martyn: with -ndo = -ing

comiendo = eating

bebiendo = drinking

pudiendo = being able

with -do = -en

comido = eaten

bebido = drinken (the correct irrgular form is "drunk")

podido = been able

>

Answer 8

If you're thinking of some form of "estar" + "pudiendo" to form a progressive tense, the basic meaning of "poder" makes it difficult to construct a sentence. Since the progressive tenses serve to emphasize the "action in progress" idea, whereas, being able to do something is more of state that you're in. The past participle, on the other hand, is pretty straightforward. consider "Gracias a mi empleo he podido viasitar a muchos países." = "Thanks to my job, I've been able to visit many countries."

Answer 9

'pudiendo = being able', and 'podido = been able' is what I needed to see.

I get present and past participles with practically every other verb, I just couldn't think for the life of me how 'pudiendo' and 'podido' translate.

But now I know - thank you.

Answer 10

I didn't have any particular situation in mind, it's just that I'm trying to revise some irregular verbs and as I wrote down the conjugations for 'poder', I realised that I couldn't translate the participles.

Answer 11

Surely you are not checking the translating for all forms for all verbs, and then memorizing them by heart, are you'

Answer 12

Sort of!

I have trouble remembering the verbs that have very different preterite stems, like poder & querer. I was just thinking to myself what the English was, as I wrote them down.

How would you suggest I learn them - I'm keen to know, as it's a weak spot for me.

Answer 13

lazarus1907 said:

Learn them by using them, not memorizing their English counterparts, or it will take you forever to learn. Past participle (-do ending):

Thank you I'll try them later.

Learning by memorising isn't something I do all the time with everything, but I don't want to say 'querí', when I should have said 'quise', so they're the verbs I'm working on.

Me voy ver mi profesor nuevo ahora - tres horas de conversaciónes. Ellas necesito!

Answer 14

Martyn, realistically, you aren't going to use "pudiendo" very often. "Pudido," on the other hand, is very useful in expressions involving "would have been able to..."

Si huibiera tenido el dinero, habría pudido ir con ustedes.
If I'd had the money, I would have been able to go (I could have gone) with you guys.

Anonymous quotation: Quien perdona pudiendo vengarse, poco le falta para salvarse.
Literally: Whoever forgives while being able to get vengeance lacks little to being saved.
More naturally: Forgiving someone while forgoing vengeance is the path to salvation.

Answer 15

James Santiago said:

Martyn, realistically, you aren't going to use "pudiendo" very often. "Pudido," on the other hand, is very useful in expressions involving "would have been able to..."

I was thinking the same thing about 'pudiendo', because it's tricky to work into an English sentence.

However, I did think of "being able to post messages on this site improves my Spanish"...

Thanks for all the replies.