Poderse vs poder

Shirley S.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Poderse vs poder

“no se puede concentrar”, why se puede and not puede?

Thanks,

Shirley

This question relates to:Spanish interactive reading exercise "¡Está como una cabra! "

Reading C1, Language & Education, Listening or Seeing C1

Asked 3 years ago

Like0Answer1

InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

Hola Shirley

The sentence is "... dice que no se puede concentrar mientras estudia"

Here, that "se" is the reflexive pronoun for "concentrarse" (to concentrate) - to concentrate [on something] is used as a pronominal verb in Spanish.

With verbal structures using an infinitive, the "se" can be placed at the beginning of the structure: "se puede concentrar" (the way it's used in this text) or could also be placed at the end, stuck to the infinitive: "dice que no puede concentrarse mientras estudia".

I hope this clarified it.

Saludos

Inma

Like13 years ago

Shirley S. asked: