French guides · Verb tables + audio

Pouvoir: can, may, and the verb you can’t give orders with.

Pouvoir means “can” — or more precisely “to be able to”, because French treats it as a full verb rather than the helper English makes of it. That matters in practice: it conjugates in every tense, including ones English has to paraphrase. J’ai pu is “I managed to”; je pourrais is “I could”; je pourrai is “I will be able to”. English needs three different constructions for those. French needs one verb.

Cocoon French·Updated 16 September 2026·6 min read

Présent — the boot again

Three stems, which is one more than most verbs manage. Peu- for the singular, pouv- for nous and vous, and peuv- for ils. There is no rule to derive them from — this is one of the tables you simply learn.

French	English	Listen
je peux	I can
tu peux	you can
il / elle peut	he / she can
nous pouvons	we can
vous pouvez	you can
ils / elles peuvent	they can

Puis-je, the form nobody teaches you

There is a second je form, puis, used only in inversion: puis-je vous aider ? — “may I help you?”. You cannot say peux-je; it is not French. Puis-je is formal and slightly old-fashioned, which is exactly why shop staff and waiters use it.

Note also that peux, peux and peut are pronounced identically. The three singular forms are one sound; only writing tells them apart.

Why there is no impératif

Most verb tables have a gap here and do not explain it. The reason is logical rather than grammatical: an imperative is an instruction, and “be able to!” is not something a person can comply with. You can tell somebody to do a thing. You cannot tell them to be capable of it.

What French uses instead

To make a polite request, French reaches for the conditionnel: pourriez-vous m’aider ?, “could you help me?”. That is the form to learn if you want the imperative’s job done — and it is considerably more polite than an imperative would have been anyway.

Passé composé — managed to, not could

The participle is pu — two letters, one sound. But the meaning is the thing to watch: j’ai pu does not mean “I could”. It means “I managed to”, “I was able to, and I did”. J’ai pu réserver une table means the table is booked.

French	English	Listen
j’ai pu	I could / was able to
tu as pu	you could / was able to
il / elle a pu	he / she could / was able to
nous avons pu	we could / was able to
vous avez pu	you could / was able to
ils / elles ont pu	they could / was able to

⚠ The two English “could”s

English uses one word for two different ideas, and French splits them. “I could swim as a child” — an ability that lasted — is the imparfait, je pouvais nager. “I could swim to the boat” — a single successful effort — is the passé composé, j’ai pu nager jusqu’au bateau. Choosing the wrong one changes what you have said happened.

Imparfait — was able to

Regular, from the nous stem pouv-. This is the tense for an ability you had over a stretch of time, and for describing a situation: on ne pouvait rien faire, “there was nothing we could do”.

French	English	Listen
je pouvais	I could / used to be able to
tu pouvais	you could / used to be able to
il / elle pouvait	he / she could / used to be able to
nous pouvions	we could / used to be able to
vous pouviez	you could / used to be able to
ils / elles pouvaient	they could / used to be able to

Futur and conditionnel — the double r

The stem is pourr-, with two rs. French speakers do pronounce both, faintly — enough that je pourrai is distinguishable from je pouvais in careful speech, though not always in fast speech.

French	English	Listen
je pourrai	I will be able to
tu pourras	you will be able to
il / elle pourra	he / she will be able to
nous pourrons	we will be able to
vous pourrez	you will be able to
ils / elles pourront	they will be able to

Conditionnel — the polite one

This is the form worth memorising ahead of the others. Pourriez-vous… and est-ce que je pourrais… are the standard way to ask for anything in French without sounding blunt. A flat vous pouvez m’aider ? is not rude exactly, but it lands like “can you help me” rather than “could you help me”.

French	English	Listen
je pourrais	I would be able to
tu pourrais	you would be able to
il / elle pourrait	he / she would be able to
nous pourrions	we would be able to
vous pourriez	you would be able to
ils / elles pourraient	they would be able to

Subjonctif — a stem from nowhere

A fourth stem, puiss-, related to puis and to nothing else in the table. It survives in fixed wishes: puisse-t-il réussir, “may he succeed”.

French	English	Listen
je puisse	(that) I be able to
tu puisses	(that) you be able to
il / elle puisse	(that) he / she be able to
nous puissions	(that) we be able to
vous puissiez	(that) you be able to
ils / elles puissent	(that) they be able to

Plus-que-parfait — had been able to

Avoir in the imparfait plus pu: j’avais pu, “I had been able to”. Rarer than the others, but it turns up in reported speech and in writing.

French	English	Listen
j’avais pu	I had been able to
tu avais pu	you had been able to
il / elle avait pu	he / she had been able to
nous avions pu	we had been able to
vous aviez pu	you had been able to
ils / elles avaient pu	they had been able to

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Quick answers

Pouvoir, answered.

The questions that come up while you are learning the table.

How do you conjugate pouvoir in the present tense?+

Je peux, tu peux, il / elle peut, nous pouvons, vous pouvez, ils / elles peuvent. The three singular forms are all pronounced the same.

Why does pouvoir have no imperative?+

Because you cannot order somebody to be able to do something — an imperative asks for an action, and “be able to” is not one. French uses the conditionnel instead: pourriez-vous…

What is the difference between je peux and puis-je?+

They mean the same thing, but puis is used only with inversion. Puis-je vous aider ? is correct and formal; peux-je does not exist.

What is the past participle of pouvoir?+

Pu. J’ai pu means “I managed to”, not simply “I could”.

How do you say “could” in French?+

It depends which “could”. A lasting ability is the imparfait, je pouvais. A single thing you succeeded in doing is the passé composé, j’ai pu. A polite request or a hypothetical is the conditionnel, je pourrais.

What is the difference between pouvoir and savoir?+

Pouvoir is being in a position to do something; savoir is having learnt how. Je sais nager means you know how to swim; je peux nager means nothing is stopping you right now.