Breakdown of ¿Puede esperar en la oficina, por favor?
en
in / on / at
la oficina
office
poder
to be able to / can
por favor
please
esperar
to wait / to hope / to expect
Questions & Answers about ¿Puede esperar en la oficina, por favor?
Why is it puede instead of puedes?
Puede is the formal "you" form (usted), which fits perfectly with the polite tone of the request. If you were asking a friend or someone you know well, you would use the informal puedes.
Why doesn't esperar change its ending?
When you use two verbs together to make a request like this, only the first verb (puede) is conjugated to match the person doing the action. The second verb (esperar) stays in its infinitive, or dictionary, form.
Where is the word for "you" in the Spanish sentence?
In Spanish, you can usually leave out the subject pronoun, like usted (you, formal), because the verb puede and the context already tell us who is being asked. You could say ¿Puede usted esperar...? but it is very common to drop it.
Doesn't esperar also mean "to hope"?
Yes! The verb esperar is a great multi-purpose word that can mean "to wait", "to hope", or "to expect". Here, the context of an office makes it clear that they are asking you "to wait".
Learn ¿Puede esperar en la oficina, por favor and more in Spanish
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free