The most common Spanish verb forms:
Modal

The term modal verbs is sometimes used for the verbs poder and deber, which are used with another 'main' verb to indicate degree of possibility or necessity.

Whether Spanish really has "modal verbs" is actually quite arguable. Many syntacticians use th term to refer to a special class of verbs that exists in some languages (including English), where those verbs have special grammatical features1. In Spanish, there is little special grammatically about so-called modal verbs.

1. For example, the English modals can, may etc have fixed forms and cannot be used as infinitives, unlike "normal" verbs.

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FormCorresponding
Infinitive
Form typeCommon translationFrequency
puedepoderPresent 3 Sing(he/she/it) can/may10.9 % of sources
poderpoderInfinitive(to) be able, can
Note: As a noun, 'poder' means 'power'.
6.6 % of sources
podríapoderConditional 3 Sing(he/she/it) could/would be able to6.1 % of sources
puedenpoderPresent 3 Plur(they) can/may4.7 % of sources
debendeberPresent 3 Plur(they) must/should
Note: Can mean 'must'/'should' as in either necessity, or speculation on the part of the speaker.
3.8 % of sources
puedapoderSubjunctive 3 Sing(he/she/it) might/could3.3 % of sources
pudopoderPreterite 3 Sing(he/she/it) was able to3.3 % of sources
podidopoderPast participlebeen able (to)2.7 % of sources
podíapoderImperfect 3 Sing(he/she/it) could, was able to, used to be able to2.6 % of sources
podríanpoderConditional 3 Plur(they) could/might/would be able to2.5 % of sources
podrápoderFuture 3 Sing(he/she/it) will be able (to)2.4 % of sources
podemospoderPresent 1 Singwe can2.4 % of sources

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