Spend Time with the 4 Frikis Pt. 3

Frikitres: The Hero of Power and Possibility

Frikitres is the most empowering character in Grammaria.

Friki Number 3 is the Blue Friki of Possibility. He is calm, confident, and full of quiet power. Wherever he goes, doors open. He gives the citizens of Grammaria one of life’s greatest gifts — the ability to do things!

The infinitive of this third Friki is NOT ‘can’. In fact, the words ‘to’ and ‘can’ don’t really like each other. You do not EVER follow the word ‘to’ with ‘can’ or visa versa.

This verb is commonly recognisable as ‘can’ but this is only its PRESENT TENSE form.

Examples:

I can speak English. ✅ - NOT: I can to speak English. ❌ (Yo puedo hablar inglés.)
It is good to be able to listen actively. ✅ - NOT: It is good to can listen actively. ❌ (Es bueno poder escuchar con atención.)

In the PAST TENSE, ‘can’ becomes → ‘could’ (pude, podía)

This third ‘Friki’ has an infinitive resembling a ‘Phrasal Verb’ = To Be Able to (Poder)
So, the STEM, which always goes with WILL and WOULD = Be Able to
Therefore, the Future tense = will be able to (podré)
The Conditional = would be able to (podría)

This verb borrows the past participle from from be = been able to (podido)
It uses a simple NOT for negation (always in THIRD position).
Can y not se escribe como una palabra Cannot o abreviado = Can’t
The question form is an inversion like the other Frikis. There is no need for DO.

Present	Can	I can swim.
Past	Could	When I was a child, I could run fast.
Future	Will Be Able to	You will be able to speak English very well soon.
Conditional	Would Be Able to	I would be able to help if I had time.
Perfect	have/ has/ had/ will have/ would have been able to	She has been able to find a job.

Present	I can swim.	Yo puedo nadar.
Negative	I cannot swim.	Yo no puedo nadar.
Question	Can you swim?	¿Tú puedes nadar?
Past	I could swim.	Yo podía nadar.
Future	I will be able to swim.	Yo podré nadar.
Conditional	I would be able to swim./ I could swim.	Yo podría nadar.
Perfect	I have been able to swim since 2010.	Yo he podido nadar desde 2010.

Peculiaridades de Frikitres

We can think of Frikitres as the ‘Freakiest’ of the ‘Frikis’ = (‘El más Friki de todos’!). This is because it has a secondary, abbreviated conditional form:

Os he enseñado asociar las terminaciónes ‘-ría’ con la palabra would
Se puede aplicar esto al verbo To Be Able to = would be able to (podría)

Also, we can think of the ‘C’ from ‘Can’ forming its own private version of ‘Would’ → ’Could’ (podría)

Entonces hay 2 traducciones para: Yo podría andar →

I could walk
I would be able to walk.

Hay ocasiones en que las dos formas son válidas. Hay ocasiones en que solo could funciona o funciona mejor. Por eso, aconsejo el uso prioritario de could.

Pero entonces, también es verdad que could es la forma usado para el pasado y el condicional. Hay dos traducciones en español para frases como: ‘I could swim.’ →

Yo podía nadar
Yo podría nadar (Se sabe cual del contexto.)

Could you do that thing I asked?	¿Pudiste hacer eso que te pedí?/ ¿Podrías hacer eso que te pedí?
Could you do me a favour?	¿Me podrías hacer un favor?
I could go to the party if I wanted to.	Podría ir a la fiesta si quisiera.
I finished early and could go to the party.	Terminé temprano y pude ir a la fiesta.
I could not have come up with a better idea myself.	No se me podría haber ocurrido una mejor idea.
I could not ‘make it’ earlier.	No pude llegar antes.