Ideal Guide to Irregular Spanish Verbs. Poder (Can), Part 1

The irregular Spanish verb poder (can, to be able to) is one you’re going to come across very frequently.

That’s why we’re going to learn to conjugate it in this Ideal Guide to Irregular Spanish Verbs.

Learning the irregular Spanish verb poder well will help you master other very common verbs that are conjugated in a similar way.

To help you get familiar with the irregular Spanish verb poder fast, we’re going to focus in this post on six main tenses: present, present perfect, imperfect, preterite, future and conditional.

Irregular Spanish verb poder. Conjugations

Learning the irregular Spanish verb poder

To learn the irregular Spanish verb poder faster, let’s compare it with the regular verb ‘vender’ which we’ve seen throughout my Basic Guide to Regular Spanish Verbs in this blog.

We’re going to see that, although poder is an irregular verb, many of its forms and endings follow the regular verb patterns.

Comparing vender & the irregular Spanish verb poder: present

The irregular Spanish verb poder in the present tense has these two features:

• All six present tense forms of the irregular Spanish verb poder have endings identical to those of regular ‘er’ verbs.
• Its root changes from ‘pod’ to ‘pued’ in four of the six persons.

In other words, the Spanish verb poder in the present tense is irregular in the first, second, third and sixth persons, but not in the forth and fifth persons.

Comparing vender & the irregular verb poder: present perfect

If you compare poder with the regular verb vender in the present perfect tense, you’ll see that the six ‘poder’ forms in this tense follow the regular pattern.

Comparing vender & the irregular verb poder: imperfect

As we’ve seen throughout this blog, there are only three Spanish verbs with an irregular imperfect tense: ‘ser’, ‘ver’ and ‘ir’.

The six imperfect tense forms of the verb poder are regular. This means that:

• Its root (‘pod’) doesn’t change in any of the six persons
• Its endings are those of the regular ‘er’ verb pattern

Comparing vender & the irregular Spanish verb poder: preterite

The irregular Spanish verb poder in the preterite tense has two main features:

• Its root changes from pod to pud in the six persons
• The first & third persons have endings different from those in the ‘er’ pattern

The preterite of the irregular Spanish verb poder is a tense you’ll need to watch out for.

Comparing vender & poder: future & conditional

Both the future and conditional tenses of the irregular Spanish verb poder have three main features:

• The root (pod) does not change in any of the persons
• All twelve forms have lost the ‘e’ that regular ‘er’ verbs have in their endings
• Except for the ‘e’, the remaining letters in the regular endings appear in the poder forms

Comparing regular and irregular verb forms is a great way of mastering the most difficult Spanish verbs quickly. I’d encourage you to do it whenever you come across a new irregular verb.

You can learn and practice the irregular Spanish verb poder, and many others, with this highly recommended Spanish verb course with audio.

For more tips on how to learn the irregular Spanish verbs fast and easily, have a look at my user-friendly guide How to Learn Spanish.

It’s your turn

Can you build a sentence using the irregular Spanish verb poder in any one of those tenses? Type it in the comment box below!