Infinitive
povi
Forms
Tenses
| Present | povas |
| Past | povis |
| Future | povos |
| Conditional | povus |
| Imperative | povu! |
Participles
| Active past | povinta |
| Active present | povanta |
| Active future | povonta |
| Passive past | povita |
| Passive present | povta |
| Passive future | povota |
Etymology
Borrowed from French pouvoir, Italian potere and English power. First attested in 1887. See: French '
pouvoir', Italian '
potere', English '
power'.
Verbs referencing "povi"
Ido povar.
Sample Sentences
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Mi povas piediri. (I can walk.)
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1910, L. L. Zamenhof, speech at the sixth World Congress of Esperanto in Washington, D.C. (Only very few of us could come to your country, because we, Esperantists, are not rich people.)
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"Nu, ĉu vi ne vidas kiom ni estas?" li demandis. "Kiel mi ne povus vidi?" ("Well, don't you see how many of us there are?" he asked. "How could I not see?") [2012, Plato, translated by Donald Broadribb, La Respubliko (Traduko al Esperanto) [The Republic (Translation into Esperanto)], 2nd corrected edition (paperback), New York: Mondial, →ISBN, page 17:]
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Mikronovelo estas eĉ pli mallonga: ekzemple ĝi povus konsisti el nur 500 vortoj; aŭ 300; aŭ precize 100 vortoj, kiel la ekzemplo sube; (A micro-novella is even shorter: for example it could consist of only 500 words; or 300; or precisely 100 words, like the example below;) [2025 September 29, Jorge Nogueras, “La plej mallonga tago”, in uea.facila, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2025:]
Translations
can, to be able