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El investigador con quien vine no pudo hablar.

El investigador con quien vine no pudo hablar.
The researcher I came with could not speak.
From Lesson 104:Irregular preterite stems·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about El investigador con quien vine no pudo hablar.

Why is 'I came' translated as vine and not a regular preterite form like 'vení'?
Venir (to come) is one of several common verbs that have a completely irregular stem in the preterite tense. Its stem changes from ven- to vin-. The endings for these irregular verbs are also unique, which is why the 'yo' (I) form is vine rather than taking a regular ending.
Why is 'could not' translated as no pudo instead of a regular form like 'no podió'?
Just like venir, the verb poder (to be able to / can) has an irregular stem in the preterite. The stem changes from pod- to pud-. The -o ending tells us it was the 'él' form, referring to el investigador (the researcher) who could not speak.
The English translation ends with 'with', so why does the Spanish sentence put con (with) in the middle?
In English, it is common to leave prepositions like 'with' at the end of a clause (like 'The researcher I came with'). In Spanish, you can never end a clause with a preposition. You must put the preposition right before the relative pronoun, so the structure is literally 'The researcher with whom I came' (El investigador con quien vine).
Why doesn't hablar (to speak) need to be conjugated?
When two verbs go together to express a single idea, only the first one is conjugated. Here, pudo is already conjugated to match the researcher, so the second verb, hablar, must stay in its infinitive (dictionary) form.

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