Questions & Answers about Я могу решить задачу.
What part of speech is могу, and what does it mean?
Могу is the 1st person singular present-tense form of the verb мочь (“to be able to”). It’s a modal verb used like English “can” or “am able to.” Russian has no separate auxiliary “can”—you simply conjugate мочь and follow it with an infinitive.
Why is решить in the infinitive form rather than a conjugated form?
Modal verbs in Russian (like мочь) require the next verb to be in the infinitive. The pattern is:
• Conjugated form of мочь + infinitive
So you say Я могу + решить, not Я решаю or Я решю. The infinitive решить names the action over which you express ability.
What’s the difference between решить and решать?
They form an aspectual pair:
- решать (imperfective) describes ongoing, habitual or repeated solving (“I am solving,” “I solve problems regularly”).
- решить (perfective) describes a single, completed action (“to solve completely”).
In Я могу решить задачу you emphasize completing the solution.
Why is the noun задачу used here, and not задача?