pouvoir.
can, to be able to
Meaning & usage
can, to be able to
Je peux venir ce soir.
may (of a choice)
Tu peux rentrer chez toi si tu veux.
to be possible; may, could be
Il se peut que je sois malade.
Il peut pleuvoir d'une minute à l'autre.
to have the right (to)
Est-ce-que je peux sortir ?
to have the power, the authority or the talent (to do something)
Je ne peux rien pour vous.
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Middle French povoir, from Old French povoir, pooir, from earlier Old French poeir, podeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, regularization of Latin posse. The /-v-/ was eventually added, after the loss of the intervocalic dental, to break hiatus. The archaic 1SG present indicative puis is from a Vulgar Latin *posseō (rather than possō), for which cf. Old Catalan puix. Cognates See also Angevin pouvoér, Aragonese poder, Aromanian pot, puteari, Asturian poder, Bourguignon peuvoi, Catalan poder, Champenois pouâr, Corsican pudè, English power, Franc-Comtois povoi, Franco-Provençal povêr, Friulian podê, Galician poder, Gallo pouvair, Istro-Romanian putę, Italian potere, Ligurian poéi, Lombard podè, Lorrain pouhoir, Megleno-Romanian pot, puteari, putęri, Neapolitan potere, Norman pouveî, pouvi, Occitan poder, Picard puvoér, Piedmontese podej, Poitevin-Saintongeais pevàe, pevoer, Portuguese poder, Romanian putea, putere, Romansh pudair, puder, pudeir, Sardinian pode, podere, podiri, poderi, Sicilian putiri, Spanish poder, Venetan poder, Walloon poleur.
power
prendre le pouvoir
authority
power of attorney
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Middle French povoir, from Old French povoir, pooir, from earlier Old French poeir, podeir, from Vulgar Latin potēre, regularization of Latin posse. The /-v-/ was eventually added, after the loss of the intervocalic dental, to break hiatus. The archaic 1SG present indicative puis is from a Vulgar Latin *posseō (rather than possō), for which cf. Old Catalan puix. Cognates See also Angevin pouvoér, Aragonese poder, Aromanian pot, puteari, Asturian poder, Bourguignon peuvoi, Catalan poder, Champenois pouâr, Corsican pudè, English power, Franc-Comtois povoi, Franco-Provençal povêr, Friulian podê, Galician poder, Gallo pouvair, Istro-Romanian putę, Italian potere, Ligurian poéi, Lombard podè, Lorrain pouhoir, Megleno-Romanian pot, puteari, putęri, Neapolitan potere, Norman pouveî, pouvi, Occitan poder, Picard puvoér, Piedmontese podej, Poitevin-Saintongeais pevàe, pevoer, Portuguese poder, Romanian putea, putere, Romansh pudair, puder, pudeir, Sardinian pode, podere, podiri, poderi, Sicilian putiri, Spanish poder, Venetan poder, Walloon poleur.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.