-
matteo tironi.
User deleted
Potere
Hi guys welcome back to Easy Peasy Italian, the blog where we try tackling the hardest language in existence, Italian...... oh well, I was forgetting German, Russian and pretty much any other language other than maybe the other Romance ones...... yeah, the website's title's pretty clear: Italian is easy
well, at least to me
ooook, so enough bullshit. We're not here to talk about other languages or counting my cat's hairs (I do not have a cat and if I had one it would be one of those that look like hairless rats, because otherwise counting the hairs would take too long).
Well, today's topic is potere. Wow, such a strong word, isn't it? It makes you feel all its might. Because, as you could already have understood, potere is related to power, in English. In fact il potere, as a noun, means the power
but what does it mean as a verb? Looooooots of things (but no, not to power, that's andare), the more so it comes with a conditional version that has a completely different meaning.
So, potere comes from an older Latin verb (no wonder), possum (not the rat-like things that likes chewing your electric cables though ). which used to mean the same. Man, why is our etymology soooo boring and blatantly obvious.....
anyway, it is clear, that the verb potere is somewhat related to having the power.
Posso andare a casa?
Do I have the power to go home? (lit.)
it is not far-fetched to say that this weird phrases actually means can.
Can I go home?
However, can is a bit wider than potere, as it has three meanings, while potere has only two of them:
1) it is used to ask for permission. (e.g. Can I go to the toilet?)
2)it is used to express possibility/chance (I can be there by 5'o clock)
3)it is used to express ability (I can swim)
well, of these, which do you think that suits the less the “have the power” phrasing we used earlier?
If I were to guess I would say the first. Funnily, it is the one that makes the most sense, the third, the one that does not work.
Io posso nuotare means that I have the permission or the chance to swim, not the ability.
That would be so nuotare, and we will deal with in an another article.
Speaking of potere, it is not used in many phrases, but I'd like the ones that I remember now. Remember, all of them have the “have the power” concept in them.
The first is a blatantly super-turbo-mega obvious one: avere il potere (lit. to have the power)
this phrase DOES cover the third meaning of can, but only in a few specific cases.
It usually refers to objects, and it sounds a bit bombastic and mystic.
Questa pietra ha il potere di evocare i draghi.
This stone has the power to summon dragons.
It can be used in the law field to express what a certain state body may or may not do.
La camera dei deputati ha il potere di nominare dieci membri della corte suprema.
The deputy's chamber has the power to nominate ten members of the Supreme court.
It is similar to English, all in all just it has a mystic-legislative touch. You know, politicians are magicians when it comes to making money disappear here, so it isn't that different.... XD
another common one is poterne (lit. can of it)
this may be a bit hard to grasp, but if I told you that it is often used in the negative form? Still clueless? Well then, let's go for an example.
Non ne posso più di te che urli sempre!
I can no longer of you who always shout! (lit.)
that in normal English is:
I can't bear with you always screaming any longer!( I don't know whether this is completely grammatical, although I guess you got what I meant)
yup, let's go for another one depressed people always use: poterci fare.
I guess I have already listed in my article (read: list) about fare's idioms, but I'll rewrite it here.
Non ci si può fare niente.
Nothing can be done about it (lit.)
It can't be helped.
I guess this one is not that far-fetched too. You just don't have the power to do it, so you can't help it.
Ah, on an interesting note, before we move on to the conditional version, potere is not needed when we talk about sense-related verbs.
I can see him.
Is not
Io lo posso vedere.
This would actually mean I can meet him (vedere is both to see and to meet in casual contexts)
but
Lo vedo.
The fact that I can do this action is understood.
“so what if I want to point the difference between I can see him and I see him?” you could ask.
“ is there any?” I would answer. It is pretty much the same. If you see him you can see him and vice versa.
Oooook, that's it for the easy part. Now to the conditional.
Actually, the conditional here has two meanings, one of which is sooooo obvious there's not even the need to say it.
1) could. Wow, really. No wonder at all. if can is the indicative, then could is the conditional
potrei vedere quel vestito?
Could I see that dress?
Se fossi venuto, avrei potuto dirtelo.
If you had come, I would have been able to tell you that.
Of course it retains the meaning it had in the indicative tense. But as could is a bit stiff and can't fit all the grammar contexts, it sometimes translates as to be able to.
Of course, just like English, when making requests potrei is more formal than posso, just like could is more formal than can.
However, could is not always translated using the conditional.
Let's have a look at this sentence:
if only I could do that.
Here the structure is a bit harder in Italian, because se solo (if only, literally) needs to be followed by him..... the subj..... yeah, you know what I mean. The mood that is always in a bad mood, the one everyone (Italians included) hate and would rather go without. Moreover, here it comes in tandem with another nightmarish tense, the infamous imperfect. Yeah, what a mix
se solo potessi farlo.
Potessi= imperfect subjunctive. Ahhhhhh. I tamed it. Shall the hatred of all the Italian learners befall on me XD
there are more conjunctions that need to be followed by the subjunctive, and it will take you a bunch of efforts to learn them, I guess. Well, there is no set rule to tell whether you need the normal verb or the monst.... subjunctive, so I guess I can't help it
So beware, could is the conditional ONLY if it is not introduced by any conjunction. Otherwise, who knows. I don't. My guts do. I guess yours will have to learn as well.
Ok, so let's get this damn potere out of our way with the last meaning of the conditional mood.
You know, the conditional mood adds the meaning of uncertainty to a verb. The indicative is certain, the conditional not.
So if something has the power to come true, but we don't really know whether it will or not, it is quite clear what this sentence means:
Lui potrebbe venire.
He may/might come.
He could came, or not. He has the power (or better, the possibility) to do so, but it is uncertain whether he actually will.
So, super-mega-magic brief recap:
1) In Italian, there is a verb called potere (which is related to power), that kind of overlaps with can, apart from for the skill part.
2) in the indicative mood, it is used to ask for permission and to express possibility.
3)in the conditional mood, it is used to make formal requests, in the main clause of the 2nd conditional (just like any other conditional verb), and to express uncertainty (like may/might).
4)phrases that use it include: poterne (to bear with sth), poterci fare (the can't help thing) and avere il potere (to have the power).
Welp, that's over. In case you have any sort of question or anything, feel free to ask
.
the modals1: potere level3are you ready to withstand its power? our first stop in the modal's realm. |
