Breakdown of ¿Podemos salir después de cenar?
nosotros
we
después de
after
salir
to go out
cenar
to have dinner
Questions & Answers about ¿Podemos salir después de cenar?
Why do we use podemos here instead of something like podríamos?
Podemos is the present tense first-person plural form of poder, meaning we can. It expresses a direct ability to do something. If you said podríamos, it would be the conditional tense, meaning we could, which adds a more polite or tentative nuance. In this sentence, the direct question ¿Podemos salir...? is perfectly natural for asking about a plan or possibility in the immediate future.
Why is it después de cenar and not después cenar?
In Spanish, después (after) is commonly followed by de when using the infinitive. So you say después de + infinitive. This structure translates to something like after eating dinner in English, where cenar (to dine or to have dinner) is the infinitive.
Can I say ¿Podemos salir después de la cena? instead of después de cenar?
Yes, you could say después de la cena, which literally means after dinner, but después de cenar emphasizes the action of eating more directly. Both are correct, though the original sentence with the infinitive cenar is very common and sounds quite natural in everyday Spanish.
What does salir mean in this context?