russian word
to be able to, can in Russian: мочь
verbimperfectivelevel A1#37 by frequency
every form stress-marked · levels from the official TORFL lexical minimum
Я не могу прийти завтра. I can't come tomorrow.
Она может говорить на трёх языках. She can speak three languages.
Aspect pair
This verb is imperfective: ongoing or repeated action. Its perfective partner, for a completed one-time result, is
Conjugation of мочь
Stress marks show the stressed vowel; it moves between forms more often than learners expect.
| present | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| я / мы | могу | можем |
| ты / вы | можешь | можете |
| он / они | может | могут |
| past | |
|---|---|
| masc | мог |
| fem | могла |
| neut | могло |
| plural | могли |
| imperative | |
|---|---|
| ты | моги |
| вы | могите |
Participles and gerunds
present activeмогущий
past activeмогший
Used in expressions
может бытьmaybe, perhaps; used to say that something is possible but not certain