"Je peux prendre ta montre ?"

Translation: Can I take your watch?

[TanteGeorgette]

A very polite mugger's expression!

[S0R0USH]

It must be a canadian mugger.

[coinaday]

I was listening and heard it as a statement. My thought was exactly "is this a mugging"?

[marcmme]

Would "Est-ce que je peux montre ta montre" also be correct? I wouldn't necessarily use "Je peux prendre ta montre" as a form of question. Any thoughts?

[Sitesurf]

there are 3 ways to ask such questions, from very formal to casual:

• "puis-je prendre ta montre ?"
• "est-ce que je peux prendre ta montre ?"
• "je peux prendre ta montre ?"

[mikeybarnes]

Three questions;
1. Do those bullet points run from most formal to casual?
2. Why is 'pouvoir' conjugated as 'puis-je' in the first and 'je peux' in the last?
3. Would the top bullet point be made more formal by using 'votre' than 'ta'?

As always, thanks for your help Sitesurf!

[Sitesurf]

1. yes, from formal down to standard down to unformal/oral
2. "puis-je" is a conventional change of vowel sound to ease pronounciation, in the Verb-Subject inversion form.
3. more "polite/respectful" indeed with the polite "vous+votre" in all 3 examples.

[YahyaZuhair]

It's interesting to see 'puis-je', as I always wondered how would the inversion work using 'peux'...
Although I don't use inversion with 'je' as you said it's not in speech, it is nice to have the option.

I have 2 questions.
1. Does 'peux' switch to 'puis' with the pronoun 'tu'?
2. Does the verb 'veux' follow the same rule as 'peux'?

Thanks a lot

[Sitesurf]

"puis-je" was kept from old French for the purpose of helping pronunciation (vs peux-je)

"peux-tu" does not pose any problem of pronunciation, so "puis" is not used.

"veux-je" is not used either in speech. It is better to use "est-ce que je veux"

[YahyaZuhair]

alright, so 'puis' is only used with 'je'... that's fine

but what if I wanted to use inversion using 'je' and 'veux', what do I use?

[Sitesurf]

You can say "veux-je ?", which is difficult to decipher in speech, but it does not matter, since you will probably ask that question to yourself...

[truemi]

Can "montre" also mean the other sort of watch, as in guard duty? Or does it refer solely to timepieces?

[Sitesurf]

"montre" as a noun is an object showing time.

"montrer" as a verb means "show", in indicative present: "je montre, il montre, elle montre"

[truemi]

Thank you, Sitesurf!

[ArnieRoss]

Does this also mean "I can take your watch."?

[cmswahoo]

Yes, that is how I translated it. In both French and English you can ask a question by putting a question mark at the end of a statement. Of course you would say it differently if it was a statement vs a question.

[Filosoto]

Could the phrase not also be used to ask to "borrow" the watch?

[Kimneumann]

Predre can't be "get" ?

[yfrenchie]

No, see http://translate.google.com/#auto/en/prendre .
In English, 'take' usually means to pick something up, while 'get' usually means 'obtain' or 'bring'.

• Let me get your stuff (= [Stay put,] let me bring you your stuff)
• Try to get an A (= obtain the highest grade)

But 'get' is a very versatile verb, there may be instances where 'prendre' is an appropriate translation.

[colt00]

same question with me

[drmeloy]

Is there a distinction between "could" and "can"? I put "Could I take your watch?" and it marked me wrong.

[PenguiN42]

"Could" is past tense