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Common or Difficult Spanish Verbs

Poder

This is a modal verb meaning "to be able to / can" and has a subjunctive use

Stressed o→ue
Present: as above, e.g. puedo
Future / conditional: podr+endings
preterite: pud + compromise endings, pude, pudo, pudimos etc. stressing the penultimate syllable
Gerund (The Spanish "-ing") : pudiendo

Note: since the preterite looks back on a completed event, it can mean managed to (could & did) or could've happened (but didn't).
Since the imperfect is unclear about when an event ended, it means was / were able (but may not have)

Examples:
¿Puedo ayudarlo? = can I help you?
¿Se puede? = May I/ we? or May I / we come in?
No puede ser = That's not possible / it cannot be
Pudieron haber llamado = they might have called
Puede que eso pase = That might happen
Puede que sí / no = Maybe so/not
Corrí a más no poder = I ran as much as I could
Puedo con eso = I can manage that
Siento que he reído, no lo pude remediar = I'm sorry that I laughed, I couldn't help it
¡No puedo más! = I can't stand it anymore!

Related words:
el poder = the power
ser poderoso = to be powerful

Querer

(stressed e→ie)

This is a modal verb meaning "to want" or "to love" with any person (including you parents) or animal but use "adorar" for things or any person (including your parents)
This has a subjunctive use

stressed: e→ie
Present: stressed: as above e.g. quiero
Present Subjunctive: formed as normal from the él form - quiera, queramos
Future/Conditional: querr+endings
Preterite: quis+ compromise endings, quise, quiso, quisieron etc. stressing the penultimate syllable

Note: it may be a little confusing to hear "quería" - I wanted and "querría" - I would want (with a rolled r)
Quisiera (formed regularly from the preterite) can be used for "I would like" (more common than using querría)
The imperfect means "wanted to"
and the preterite means tried to (wanted to but couldn't), wanted to (and did - implying getting your own way) or in the negative sense, refused:
Quise llamarle anoche pero no pude= I tried to call you last night but I couldn't
No quise dárselo = I refused to give it to him

Other examples:
¿Quiere que yo lo ayude? = Do you want me to help you? - Note the subjunctive use. You can also say "¿Quiere ayuda? = Do you want help/assistance?
¿Quiere echarme una mano? = Can you give me a hand?
Quiero mucho a mis hijos = I love my children a lot - Note the personal "a" since this is using a direct human object
Querer decir = to mean e.g. ¿Qué quiere decir? = What do you mean? or No sé qué quiere decir = I don't know what it means
Am I right?
No sé qué quiere decir
I think the above uses qué because it is an indirect question (implying the question is "what do you mean? - ¿Qué quiere decir?"). Qué is also used before infinitives (No sé qué hacer)
when "what" is not used as an indirect question, use lo que and it's an indirect pronoun. Qué is not an indirect pronoun

Querer bien / mal = to like / dislike e.g. La quiero bien = I like her
Quiere llover = It looks like it's going to rain
Lo hice sin querer = I did it unintentionally
Como / Cuando quiera = As you like / whenever you like (the subjunctive is used to show "whenever you may like")

Expressions:
Querer es poder = Where there's a will, there's a way
¡Por lo que más quieras! = For goodness sake!

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