“Riuscire“ and “potere“ are two words that I continue to mix up in conversation and none of my Italian books effectively explain the difference. Both verbs basically mean “to be able to do something”, but the usage is very different.

For example:

Riuscire
“Non riesco a venire da te questa sera.” – I can’t come to your house this evening.

Potere
“Non posso venire da te questa sera.” – I can’t come to your house this evening.

They appear to say the same thing, but there is significant difference in their meanings. Riesco, more or less, means that you are or are not physically able to do something. If you’re too tired or injured or there’s some other physical reason that you can’t do something, you’d usually use riuscire.

On the other hand, posso is used to mean that you do or don’t have permission to do something. For instance, if you have other plans or have to watch your kids or your mother won’t let you go out for the evening, you’d use potere.

A “slang” alternative to Riuscire

I had a hell of a time learning to pronouce “riesco” smoothly in a sentence without having to stop and pronounce each syllable. What I learned later on is that

riuscire = farcela or fare ce la

Now, what the hell does that mean? Basically, if you want to say that you are or are not able to do something in a phrase where you’d use riuscire, you can use one of the phrases:

“Ce la faccio” – I can do it
“Ce la fai” – You can do it
“Ce la fa” – He/She/It can do it
“Ce la facciamo” – We can do it
“Ce la fate” – You all can do it
“Ce la fanno” -They can do it

By conjugating fare and adding “ce la“ before it, you express the same sentiment as using riuscire, but in a much easier to pronounce form.

So instead of:
“Non riesco a venire da te questa sera.”

You can simply say:
“Non ce la faccio a venire da te questa sera.”