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Poder (to be able to) is regular in El Pretérito Imperfecto in Spanish.
Learn how to conjugate "poder" in El Pretérito Imperfecto in Spanish
| yo | podía |
| tú | podías |
| él / ella / Ud. | podía |
| nosotros / nosotras |
podíamos |
| vosotros / vosotras |
podíais |
| ellos / ellas / Uds. | podían |
Read and listen to these examples:
Look how in the examples poder is always followed by an infinitive. We use poder in El Pretérito Imperfecto combined with another verb to express what "you could do in the past at some point".
Bear in mind that "could" in English can refer to different situations. It can be referring to past actions, which is what we are explaining in this lesson, or it can refer to polite requests, e.g., "Could you pass me the salt, please?" For the latter, see Using poder to say could [do something] for polite requests and suggestions in Spanish (El Condicional Simple), also using the modal verb poder in Spanish.
For general conjugation in El Pretérito Imperfecto see Conjugate regular -er and -ir verbs in the imperfect tense in Spanish (El Imperfecto)
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