putea

putea

1. inflection of putear:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Inherited from Vulgar Latin potēre, from Latin posse.

• IPA^(key): /puˈte̯a/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a
• Hyphenation: pu‧tea

• Audio:

  (file)

a putea (third-person singular present poate, past participle putut) 2nd conj.

1. (catenative, informally also transitive) to be able to; can, could, may

   Nu pot înțelege ce zici.

   I can’t understand what you're saying.

   Pot să stau aici?

   May I sit here?

   Poate să vină?

   Can he come?

   Puteți să mă ajutați, vă rog?

   Can you help me, please?

2. (reflexive, impersonal, catenative) to be possible, to be conceivable, to be a possibility

   Se poate să fi greșit.

   It could be that they made a mistake.

   Se poate să mai primesc o foaie?

   Could I get another sheet?

   Pe vremea aceea nu se putea ieși din țară.

   In those days one couldn’t exit the country.

Putea and ști are the only verbs for which the subordinate clause they introduce can be in the infinitive mood without the otherwise mandatory auxiliary a (“to”).^[1] This is optional, and, for putea, characteristic of careful modes of expression:

Poate merge (infinitive, literary) — Poate să meargă (subjunctive, informal) — “He can walk”. (*Poate a merge — not allowed.)

Accusative personal pronouns governed by the subordinate infinitive verb must precede putea: Îl poate vedea (“she can see him”), not *Poate îl vedea (using the subjunctive: Poate să îl vadă).

A subordinate sentence in the past tense does not allow the infinitive, but only the subjunctive perfect.

• putere

• potență
• potent
• putință

• putea in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

putea

1. inflection of putear:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative