Learn Portuguese (Portugal): Não podes ir ao bar comigo.

Não podes ir ao bar comigo.

You cannot go to the bar with me.

Breakdown of Não podes ir ao bar comigo.

não

not / no

to the / at the (m.sg; f.sg à, m.pl aos, f.pl às)

to go

poder

can / may (verb)

Questions & Answers about Não podes ir ao bar comigo.

Why is the word for 'with me' comigo instead of 'com me'?

In Portuguese, the preposition com (with) combines with certain pronouns to make completely new words. Instead of saying 'com mim' or 'com eu', you must use the special combined word comigo to say 'with me'.

Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?

It is built into the verb podes (can). Because podes is the 'you' (informal singular) form of the verb poder, Portuguese speakers usually drop the pronoun tu. You could say Tu não podes, but just Não podes is much more common.

Why is ir left in its dictionary form (to go) instead of being conjugated?

When you have two verbs working together, only the first one changes to match the person doing the action. Here, podes (can) is conjugated for 'you', so the second verb ir (to go) stays in its basic infinitive form.

Why do we use ao before bar instead of just a (to)?