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No puedo dormir en la noche. El ruido es muy fuerte.

No puedo dormir en la noche. El ruido es muy fuerte.
I cannot sleep at night. The noise is very loud.
From Lesson 38:Stem-changing verbs (o to ue)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about No puedo dormir en la noche. El ruido es muy fuerte.

Why is it puedo instead of "podo"?
Poder (to be able to/can) is a stem-changing verb. In the present tense, the o changes to ue for most forms, including the "yo" (I) form. That gives us puedo (I can).
Dormir is also an "o -> ue" stem-changing verb. Why didn't it change to "duermir"?
When you have two verbs together like "I can sleep", only the first verb changes to match the person doing the action. The second verb stays in its basic, unchanged dictionary form (the infinitive). Since poder is already changed to puedo, dormir stays exactly as it is.
Doesn't fuerte usually mean "strong"?
Yes! But when talking about sounds or noises (el ruido), fuerte is used to mean "loud". So un ruido muy fuerte translates naturally to "a very loud noise".
Can I say por la noche instead of en la noche?
Yes, both are perfectly fine and mean "at night". In Latin America, en la noche is very common, while por la noche is also widely used and understood everywhere.
Why use es instead of está for the noise? The noise isn't permanent, is it?
Even though a specific noise might not last forever, being loud is the defining characteristic of this particular noise. We use ser (here as es) to describe the basic qualities or traits of things, including how a sound is.

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