I won't be able to help you now

Question

Can someone please help with the translation and the best use of the verb poder in this sentence? I was not very sure of the translation which I received from the machine translators.

Answer 1

Why not use podré? Something like 'ya no podré ayudarte'....

In my experience present tense is used for the future far more than future tense. - jeezzle, Oct 15, 2010

I guess I was going to the translate exactly mode, hard not to do that... - margaretbl, Oct 15, 2010

Both can be said, but "ya no podré ayudarte" has a different nuance than "no puedo ayudarte". It would be said when something has changed and prevents you from helping anymore. Something like: "I'm sorry, but now I won't be able to help you anymore". - bill1111, Oct 16, 2010

Answer 2

Or ahora no voy a poder ayudarte!

Answer 3

That is easy the correct translation is Ahora no puedo ayudarte or No puedo ayudarte ahora you can put the Ahora either in the beginning or at the end

That's only as long as "now" is used as "in this moment". If "now" is used as "this time", or there is an implied "it's too late now", there would be different translations available. - bill1111, Oct 15, 2010

Answer 4

Possible translations in Spanish of that would be: "Ahora no puedo ayudarte" or "ahora no voy a poder ayudarte". Still, that sentence is ambiguous enough that it could be translated in different ways depending on the meaning of "now", for example.