O artigo aborda o uso das alternantes podia e poderia em dois tópicos seguintes: para o semântico,
adotou-se a concepção de tempo fÃsico para entender a de tempo verbal segundo a definição de Coroa (2005), que
se baseou no modelo teórico de Reichenbach (1947) e; para o sociolinguÃstico, baseou-se na teoria variacionista
laboviana. Concluiu-se que as várias ocorrências das formas podia e poderia tornam difÃcil restringir ou unificar
o significado delas, e que podia vem sendo, provavelmente, empregada em contextos, onde caberia poderia.
This paper approaches the use of the alternant modals podia and poderia in the two following
topics: for the semantic focus was adopted the conception of physical time for undestanding the verbal tense
according to Coroa’s (2005) definition, which was based on Reichenbach’s (1947) theoretical model and, for the
sociolinguistic focus, it was based on the Labovian variocionist theory. It was concluded that the various
occurrencies of the forms podia and poderia make difficult restricting or unifying their meaning, and that the
alternant podia has been used probably in contexts where the form poderia would also fit.
