Breakdown of ¿Podemos abrir la ventana?
Questions & Answers about ¿Podemos abrir la ventana?
Why is there no word for "we" in this sentence?
In Spanish, the ending of the verb usually tells you who is doing the action. The verb podemos ends in -emos, which specifically means "we can". You could say ¿Nosotros podemos abrir la ventana?, but dropping the pronoun is much more common and natural. Why is the verb "abrir" not conjugated?
When you have two verbs working together in a sentence like "can open" (podemos abrir), you only conjugate the first verb. The second verb stays in its basic dictionary form, which is called the infinitive. How do you know this is a question if it doesn't start with a question word?
In Spanish, you don't need helper words like "do" to make a question. You just take the normal statement and add question marks and a rising tone of voice at the end. The upside-down question mark (¿) at the beginning helps you know to read it as a question right away. I learned that "poder" changes to "puedo" for "I can". Why isn't it "puedemos" here?
The verb poder is a stem-changing verb, meaning the o changes to ue for most forms (like yo puedo or tú puedes). However, the "we" (nosotros) and "you all" (vosotros) forms are exceptions to this rule. They keep the original o, which is why it is podemos and not puedemos. Learn ¿Podemos abrir la ventana and more in Spanish
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