Breakdown of ¿Podría decirme quién tiene la carpeta negra?
tener
to have
negro
black
quién
who (singular)
poder
to be able to / can
me
to me / me (direct object)
decir
to say, to tell
la carpeta
folder
Questions & Answers about ¿Podría decirme quién tiene la carpeta negra?
Why is it podría instead of podrías here?
Podría is the formal usted form of the conditional, which makes the request extra polite. If you were talking to a friend using tú, you would say ¿podrías decirme...? instead.
Why is me attached to the end of decir?
In Spanish, object pronouns like me (to me) are often attached directly to the end of an infinitive (an unconjugated verb, like decir). You are also allowed to put the pronoun before the first conjugated verb, which would look like this: ¿Me podría decir...?
Why does quién have an accent mark when it is in the middle of the sentence?
Question words like quién, qué, and dónde always keep their accent marks when they introduce an indirect question inside another sentence. Here, quién tiene la carpeta negra acts as a question embedded inside the main request.
Does carpeta mean 'carpet'?
No, carpeta is a 'false friend'—a word that looks like an English word but means something completely different. It actually means 'folder'. If you want to say 'carpet' or 'rug' in Spanish, you would use the word alfombra.
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