Ara puc respondre sense mirar el paper.

now

Breakdown of Ara puc respondre sense mirar el paper.

• sense: without
• poder: to be able to
• mirar: to look at

Questions & Answers about Ara puc respondre sense mirar el paper.

Why is there no word for I in the sentence?

Catalan often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb already makes the subject clear.

Here, puc means I can, so jo is not necessary.
You could say Ara jo puc respondre sense mirar el paper, but that usually adds emphasis, like I can answer now.

So the normal, natural version is simply:

Ara puc respondre sense mirar el paper.

What does ara mean, and why is it at the beginning?

Ara means now.

Putting it at the beginning is very natural because it sets the time frame right away: Now I can...

Catalan often places time words like ara, avui, demà, etc. near the beginning of the sentence, but other positions are sometimes possible depending on emphasis.

What exactly is puc?

Puc is the 1st person singular present form of the verb poder, which means to be able to / can.

So:

• poder = to be able to
• puc = I can

Some other forms are:

• pots = you can
• pot = he/she/it can
• podem = we can
• podeu = you all can