Questions & Answers about Pot merge acasă?
Why does this use merge instead of să merg?
In Romanian, the verb a putea (to be able to / can) is special. You can follow it with either the short infinitive (the dictionary form without the word a, like merge here) or the subjunctive form (like să merg). Both Pot merge? and Pot să merg? mean exactly the same thing and are correct!
Where is the word for 'I' in this sentence?
Romanian often drops subject pronouns like eu (I) because the verb form already tells you who is doing the action. The verb pot is the 'I' form of the verb, so adding eu is not necessary.
Doesn't pot also mean 'they can'? How do we know it means 'I' here?
You are right, pot is the form for both 'I can' (eu pot) and 'they can' (ei/ele pot). You have to rely on context to tell them apart. When asking for permission, it is almost always 'Can I...?', but if you were talking about other people, it could mean 'Can they go home?'.
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