Puede = polite command?

[Caballero]

So poder can be used to form polite cmds, like in English, right?
Give me the book! -> Can you give me the book? ¿Puede darme el libro?
And ?Puede pasarme el sal?

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Caballero

So poder can be used to form polite cmds, like in English, right?
Give me the book! -> Can you give me the book? ¿Puede darme el libro?
And ?Puede pasarme el sal?

Like in English it shouldn't be used that way.

Can you give the book? No, because it is on sale.... etc...

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Caballero

So poder can be used to form polite cmds, like in English, right?
Give me the book! -> Can you give me the book?

You can't really use it like that in English, (well it sounds very impolite to me) more correct is "Could you give me that book?".

Having said that, you can in Spanish!

por favor ¿me puede decir ....
por favor ¿puede decirme ....
por favor ¿me podría decir ... (equivalent to the English)
por favor ¿podría decirme ....

[Luna Azul]

Of course the sentences given by Perikles are correct, but the usual and more natural way to sound polite in Spanish without adding "poder" --that sounds very English--, is just asking the question and adding "por favor".

"¿Me das el libro, por favor?"

"Me pasas la sal, por favor?"

Among friends you can skip "por favor" and just by using a question instead of a mandate, it sounds polite enough:

"¿me pasas la sal?" - ¡Pásame la sal!

I may be wrong, but this is something that I experienced in Spain. They use the mandate form a lot and it seems to be fine with them. It's not so in Latin America.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

"Pásame la sal, por favor" is polite enough in Mexico, but when using "usted", we need to be much kinder. We would ask something like "¿podría pasarme la sal por favor?" / "¿Lo molesto si me pasa la sal por favor?" / "Disculpe, ¿me pasa la sal por favor?"...

[irmamar]

I find much more polite and kind if "poder" is used in a question than if "por favor" is added. For instance, I prefer my boss telling me:

¿Puedes/podrías imprimirme este informe?

than

Imprímeme este informe, por favor (where imperative is used).

"¿Te importaría imprimirme este informe" would be much better.

It may be used only in Spain, but I wouldn't say that it is an Anglicism. "Poder + infinitivo" is a "perífrasis" used for a lot of things, not only for commands.