Learn Spanish (Latin America): ¿Podría copiar el artículo del autor?

¿Podría copiar el artículo del autor?

Could you copy the author's article?

Breakdown of ¿Podría copiar el artículo del autor?

Questions & Answers about ¿Podría copiar el artículo del autor?

Why does the Spanish sentence use podría instead of podrías for 'Could you'?

Podría is the formal usted form of the verb, which matches the highly polite tone of 'Could you...'. If you were asking a friend or someone your own age, you would use the familiar tú form: ¿Podrías copiar...?

Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns like usted (formal you) because the context and the verb ending usually make it clear. If you wanted to emphasize it or avoid confusion, you could definitely include it: ¿Podría usted copiar...?

Why is the second verb, copiar, left in its infinitive form?

When you use a helper verb like poder (to be able to) followed by another action, only the first verb is conjugated. Because podría already tells us who is doing the action and when, copiar stays in its base dictionary form.

What does the word del do in this sentence?

del is a mandatory contraction of the words de (of) and el (the). In Spanish, you cannot say de el autor; they always merge into del autor to express 'of the author' or 'the author's'.