Why is "Can I see your passport" "¿Me permite su pasaporte?", & not "¿Puede ver su pasaporte?"

Question

Why is "Can I see your passport" "¿Me permite su pasaporte?", & not "¿Puedo ver su pasaporte?"

Or is that just the formal way of saying it in Spanish. Because I believe in English the proper way is to say "May I see your passport?".

Thoughts?

I made a grammatical error. "Puede" should have been "Puedo". thanks Lazarus1907 - Acelata, Jun 26, 2011

Answer 1

Why is "Can I see your passport" "¿Me permite su pasaporte?", & not "¿Puede ver su pasaporte?"

Well, the latter question would mean "¿Can you see your passport?", while the former is a polite short for "Do you allow me [to see] your passport?" (literal translation)

So the "to see" part of the translation is implied because the verb "ver" is not present in the question: "Me permite su pasaporte?" - Acelata, Jun 26, 2011

Answer 2

"Can I see your passport" "¿Me permite su pasaporte?", & not "¿Puedo ver su pasaporte?"

This is more regional than anything else.

Here it would be more normal to hear:

¿Me da su pasaporte?

¡S u pasaporte por favor!

Answer 3

In colloguial English, people often use "can" when they should use "may." This is an example. I had a teacher in high school who was a real stickler about "can" and "may." If you asked her, "Can I get a drink of water?" she'd say, "Yes, you can but you may not!" In other words, you are physically able to get a drink of water, but not permitted to do so.

lol that's too funny about your teacher. I had one too. jajaja... - Acelata, Jun 26, 2011