Polyglot Dictionary

could

/kʊd/

modal verb A2
V Register Neutral Era Current Frequency Core Domain General Tone Neutral

Forms

negative
could not / couldn't

Meaning

  1. podía, pude (capacidad en pasado)

    The past tense of "can" — describes a past ability.

    • I could swim when I was five.

      Podía nadar cuando tenía cinco años.

  2. podría (posibilidad, petición cortés)

    A softer, more polite way to ask "can" — also expresses present possibility.

    • Could you help me, please?

      ¿Podrías ayudarme, por favor?

Práctica

1 ¿Qué significa could?

2 Completa el espacio en blanco: I ___ swim when I was five.

3 ¿Qué gráfico de características corresponde a could?

Usage notes

"Could" doubles as the plain past tense of "can" (ability) and as its own, more tentative modal (polite requests, present possibility) — context tells them apart.

verbmodal-verbirregularcore-vocabularygrammar

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