Breakdown of ¿Por qué no pueden volver al hotel?
no
no, not
el hotel
hotel
al
to the
por qué
why
poder
to be able to / can
volver
to return
Questions & Answers about ¿Por qué no pueden volver al hotel?
Why is it pueden instead of 'poden'?
Pueden comes from the verb poder (to be able to / can). Poder is a stem-changing verb, which is the focus of this lesson. This means the o in the root changes to ue in most present tense forms. So, for 'they can', it becomes pueden.
I learned that volver is also a stem-changing verb. Why doesn't it change to 'vuelven' here?
You are right that volver (to return) changes its stem to vuelv- when conjugated! However, in Spanish, when you have two verbs working together to form a single idea (like 'can return'), only the first verb is conjugated. The second verb stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form. That is why we use the conjugated pueden followed by the unchanged volver.
Why does the sentence say al hotel instead of 'a el hotel'?
In Spanish, when the preposition a (to) is right next to the masculine singular article el (the), they must combine to form the single word al. You will never see 'a el' written separately unless the 'El' is part of a capitalized proper noun.
Where is the word for 'they' in this sentence?
In Spanish, you often drop subject pronouns like ellos or ellas (they). The verb ending already tells us who is doing the action. The -en at the end of pueden lets us know the subject is 'they' (or 'you all').
Why is por qué written as two words with an accent?
Por qué (two words, with an accent) means 'why'. It is very important not to confuse it with porque (one word, no accent), which means 'because'. A good trick is to remember that question words usually have accent marks, and 'why' is split up in Spanish just like 'for what' is in English.
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