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Permission and Request

Pouvoir is also used to express possibility, permissibility: Permissions and requests often take the form of questions:

Est-ce que nous pouvons entrer dans cette église?
(May we enter this church?)

The conditional of pouvoir means might, could:

Je pourrais vous rencontrer ce soir.
(I could/might meet you tonight.)

Idiomatic expressions with pouvoir:

Je n'y peux rien. (I can't help it.)
Nous n'en pouvons plus. (We are worn out.)

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