Breakdown of Sigo sin poder ubicarme por la niebla.
poder
to be able to / can
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
seguir
to continue
la niebla
the fog
sin
without
ubicarse
to orient oneself
Questions & Answers about Sigo sin poder ubicarme por la niebla.
Why does the sentence use sin poder instead of a negative gerund like no pudiendo?
While seguir usually takes a gerund to mean you keep doing something, the negative version uses seguir sin plus an infinitive. To say you still can't do something, you say sigo sin poder (literally, I continue without being able). Using a negative gerund like sigo no pudiendo sounds very unnatural in Spanish.
How does ubicarme translate to 'get my bearings'?
The verb ubicar generally means to locate or to place. When you make it reflexive, like ubicarse, it literally means to locate oneself. In everyday Spanish, this is the standard way to say you are getting your bearings, finding your way, or orienting yourself in a new place or a confusing situation like heavy fog.
Could the pronoun me go somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes. When you have a chain of verbs that includes infinitives, you can attach the pronoun to the end of any of the infinitives or place it before the conjugated verb. You could perfectly well say Me sigo sin poder ubicar or Sigo sin poderme ubicar, and both mean exactly the same thing as the original sentence.
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