Poder Conjugation | How to Conjugate Poder in Spanish

¡Hola! ¿Puedes hablar español? In this article, I will show you all the conjugations for the Spanish verb poder. You’ll learn how to conjugate poder in different tenses and see some sentence examples that will help you practice.

The verb poder means “can” or “to be able to” in Spanish. You can use poder to ask someone for the time (“¿Puedes darme la hora?”) or to tell them about something you can do (“Puedo hablar inglés”).  Poder is an irregular verb, which means that it doesn’t follow the usual rules of grammar. Instead, you will need to learn each of its conjugated forms. 

The table below shows three common conjugations for the verb poder: the infinitive, the gerund, and the past particle.

Here are three example sentences that use the conjugations of poder from the table above:

• Infinitive: Es importante poder entender otros idiomas. (It is important to be able to understand other languages.)
• Gerund: Pudiendo decírlo, decidió no hacerlo. (Being able to say it, he decided not to.)
• Past Participle: Habiendo podido viajar por tren, prefirió tomar un bus. (Having been able to travel by train, he decided to ride the bus.)

Now you understand the meaning of poder and know how to conjugate its infinitive, gerund, and past participle forms. Next, we will look at poder in all of its different tenses. Click on the table below to see the verb poder conjugated in each specific tense. 

How to Conjugate Poder in Indicative Tense

In Spanish, the indicative mood is used to talk about facts, habits, or descriptions. Since it can be used to describe factual events in the present, past, or future, knowing its tenses can help you express yourself fluently. Below, we will see the 5 different tenses for the indicative mood: present, future, preterite, imperfect, and conditional.

Indicative Present

The indicative present tense is used to talk about actions that take place in the present or in the near future. You can also use it to make a true statement. With poder, you can use its indicative present conjugations to talk about things you can do or are possible in the present. For example, you could say “Puede que llueva hoy” which means “It could rain today.” 

Scroll down to take a look at the table with the indicative present conjugations for poder.

Pronoun	Poder Conjugation	English Meaning
Yo	puedo	I can
Tú	puedes	You can
Vos	podés	You can
Él/Ella/Usted	puede	He/She/You can
Nosotros	podemos	We can
Vosotros	podéis	You can
Ellos/Ellas/ Ustedes	pueden	They/You can

Here are some example sentences showing how to conjugate poder in the indicative present tense:

• Yo puedo leer rápido. / I can read quickly.
• Nosotros podemos cocinar la cena. / We can cook dinner.
• Ellos pueden hablar italiano. / They can speak Italian.

Return to Conjugation Table

Indicative Future

In Spanish, we use the indicative future tense to talk about things that will happen. In this case, you can use the poder verb conjugation for indicative future to refer to things you will able to do in the future. For example, you could say “Yo podré aprender español pronto” which means, “I will be able to learn Spanish soon.”

Scroll down to see the poder conjugation chart for the indicative future tense.

Pronoun	Poder Conjugation	English Meaning
Yo	podré	I will be able to
Tú	podrás	You will be able to
Vos	podrás	You will be able to
Él/Ella/Usted	podrá	He/She/You will be able to
Nosotros	podremos	We will be able to
Vosotros	podréis	You will be able to
Ellos/Ellas/ Ustedes	podrán	They/You will be able to

Here are some example sentences showing how to conjugat