se pouvoir

French

Verb

se pouvoir [with subjunctive]

1. (impersonal, reflexive) to be possible; may, could be

   Il se peut que je sois malade.

   I may be ill. / I could be ill.

   (literally, “It could be that I'm ill.”)

Conjugation

• This verb is impersonal and is conjugated only in the third-person singular.

Conjugation of se pouvoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	se pouvoir
	compound	s'être + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	se pouvant /sə pu.vɑ̃/
	compound	ayant or étant + past participle
past participle		pu /py/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	—2	—	se peut /sə pø/	—	—	—
	imperfect	—	—	se pouvait /sə pu.vɛ/	—	—	—
	past historic4	—	—	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 anterior4	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	—3	—	se puisse /sə pɥis/	—	—	—
	imperfect4	—	—	se pût /sə py/	—	—	—
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of s'être + past participle
	pluperfect4	imperfect subjunctive of s'être + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	—	—	—	—	—
compound		—	simple imperative of s'être + past participle	—	simple imperative of s'être + past participle	simple imperative of s'être + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 puis when inverted.
3 puissé when inverted.
4 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Anagrams

• pourvoies