se pouvoir
French
Verb
se pouvoir (+ subjunctive)
- (impersonal, reflexive) to be possible; may, could be
- Il se peut que je sois malade. — (literally) It could be that I'm ill / (more naturally) I may be ill. / I could be ill.
Conjugation
- This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.
Conjugation of se pouvoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)
| present participle | se pouvant /sə pu.vɑ̃/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| past participle | pu /py/ | ||||||
| infinitive | |||||||
| simple | se pouvoir | ||||||
| compound | s'être + past participle | ||||||
| gerund1 | |||||||
| simple | se pouvant /sə pu.vɑ̃/ | ||||||
| compound | s'étant + past participle | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | — | — | se peut /sə pø/ | — | — | — |
| imperfect | — | — | se pouvait /sə pu.vɛ/ | — | — | — | |
| past historic2 | — | — | se put /sə py/ | — | — | — | |
| future | — | — | se pourra /sə pu.ʁa/ | — | — | — | |
| conditional | — | — | se pourrait /sə pu.ʁɛ/ | — | — | — | |
| (compound tenses) | present perfect | present indicative of s'être + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect | imperfect indicative of s'être + past participle | ||||||
| past anterior2 | past historic of s'être + past participle | ||||||
| future perfect | future of s'être + past participle | ||||||
| conditional perfect | conditional of s'être + past participle | ||||||
| subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
| (simple tenses) | present | — | — | se puisse /sə pɥis/ | — | — | — |
| imperfect2 | — | — | se pût /sə py/ | — | — | — | |
| (compound tenses) | past | present subjunctive of s'être + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of s'être + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| compound | — | simple imperative of s'être + past participle | — | simple imperative of s'être + past participle | simple imperative of s'être + past participle | — | |
| 1 Only usable with preposition en. | |||||||
| 2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||
Anagrams
- pourvoies