Word
Ainda não posso confirmar a reserva.
Meaning
I cannot confirm the reservation yet.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ainda não posso confirmar a reserva.
não
not / no
poder
can / may (verb)
ainda
still / yet / even (with comparatives)
confirmar
to confirm
Questions & Answers about Ainda não posso confirmar a reserva.
The lesson is about ainda não with the past tense, but this sentence uses the present tense (posso). Does it mean the same thing?
Yes! While you have been practicing ainda não (not yet) with the past tense to say you haven't done something yet, it also works perfectly with the present tense. Here, ainda não posso just means "I cannot yet" or "I still cannot".
In English, we usually put "yet" at the end of the sentence. Why is ainda não at the beginning here?
In Portuguese, the phrase ainda não usually stays together and comes right before the verb it modifies. While English speakers say "I cannot confirm yet", the natural Portuguese word order is closer to "Not yet I can confirm".
Why do we use posso instead of consigo here, since both translate to "I can"?
Consigo is used for physical or mental ability, or managing to do something with effort. Posso is used for permission, availability, or external circumstances. Here, the speaker is likely waiting on an external factor (like system approval, a manager, or payment) to confirm the booking, making posso the right choice.
Why doesn't confirmar change its ending to match the "I" subject?
When you have two verbs working together to express a single idea, only the first one (posso) gets conjugated to match the subject. The second verb (confirmar) stays in its basic, unchanged dictionary form (the infinitive).