Con la beca, tú podrías pagar la maestría.

Questions & Answers about Con la beca, tú podrías pagar la maestría.

Why is the verb podrías instead of poderías?
This is the conditional tense of poder (to be able to). The verb poder has an irregular stem in the conditional. Instead of adding the ending to the full infinitive, you drop the 'e' to get the stem podr-, and then add the ending -ías. This gives us podrías, meaning 'you could' or 'you would be able to'.
In English we say 'pay for' the master's degree. Why isn't there a word for 'for' before la maestría?
In Spanish, the verb pagar directly takes the item you are buying as its object. You do not need to add a translation for 'for'. Saying pagar por la maestría is unnecessary and can sound unnatural when simply stating what you are buying.
Why is the pronoun included if the verb ending already shows who is doing the action?
You are right that the -ías ending on podrías makes grammatically optional. Including it here just adds a little extra emphasis to the subject, similar to stressing the word 'you' in English: 'with the scholarship, you could pay for the master's degree'.
Is maestría the standard word for a master's degree?
Yes, maestría is the most common and standard way to refer to a master's degree in Latin America. You will sometimes hear people use the English loanword máster, but maestría is the traditional term you should use in this region.

Learn Con la beca, tú podrías pagar la maestría 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