¿se puede pasar?
“¿se puede pasar?” — may I come in? in Spanish. Phrase, level A2. The impersonal se puede means one may, in general. At the door people shorten it to ¿se puede? In a live sentence: “¿Se puede pasar? Traigo el paquete” — May I come in? I have a package for you. You can hear how it sounds right here. A word from the everyday Spanish course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Spanish | ¿se puede pasar? |
| Translation | may I come in? |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
- ¿se puede pasar?may I come in?
Why it looks that way
The impersonal se puede means one may, in general. At the door people shorten it to ¿se puede?
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- ¿Se puede pasar? Traigo el paqueteMay I come in? I have a package for you
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “may I come in?” in Spanish?
«¿se puede pasar?» In a live sentence: “¿Se puede pasar? Traigo el paquete” — May I come in? I have a package for you. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Phrase, level A2.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The impersonal se puede means one may, in general. At the door people shorten it to ¿se puede? A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.