All categories Action Aspectual Auxiliary Copular Existential Locative Modal Movement Perception Relationship State UtteranceThe most common Spanish verb forms:
Modal
The term modal verbs is sometimes used for the verbs poder and deber, which are used with another 'main' verb to indicate degree of possibility or necessity.
Whether Spanish really has "modal verbs" is actually quite arguable. Many syntacticians use th term to refer to a special class of verbs that exists in some languages (including English), where those verbs have special grammatical features1. In Spanish, there is little special grammatically about so-called modal verbs.
1. For example, the English modals can, may etc have fixed forms and cannot be used as infinitives, unlike "normal" verbs.
Browse verbs by category:
Action Aspectual Auxiliary Copular Existential Locative Movement Perception Relationship State Utterance
| Form | Corresponding Infinitive | Form type | Common translation | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| puede | poder | Present 3 Sing | (he/she/it) can/may | 10.9 % of sources |
| poder | poder | Infinitive | (to) be able, can Note: As a noun, 'poder' means 'power'. | 6.6 % of sources |
| podría | poder | Conditional 3 Sing | (he/she/it) could/would be able to | 6.1 % of sources |
| pueden | poder | Present 3 Plur | (they) can/may | 4.7 % of sources |
| deben | deber | Present 3 Plur | (they) must/should Note: Can mean 'must'/'should' as in either necessity, or speculation on the part of the speaker. | 3.8 % of sources |
| pueda | poder | Subjunctive 3 Sing | (he/she/it) might/could | 3.3 % of sources |
| pudo | poder | Preterite 3 Sing | (he/she/it) was able to | 3.3 % of sources |
| podido | poder | Past participle | been able (to) | 2.7 % of sources |
| podía | poder | Imperfect 3 Sing | (he/she/it) could, was able to, used to be able to | 2.6 % of sources |
| podrían | poder | Conditional 3 Plur | (they) could/might/would be able to | 2.5 % of sources |
| podrá | poder | Future 3 Sing | (he/she/it) will be able (to) | 2.4 % of sources |
| podemos | poder | Present 1 Sing | we can | 2.4 % of sources |
Home
Spanish Dictionary
Spanish Phrases