Copy of Week 22 Day 3: Conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, and pluperfect subjunctive
Today’s goal is:
- To learn about the different compound moods
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 1
I just got home. And you?
I got home a few minutes ago.
Do you know if Paula got home?
I don’t think she is home yet.
Why not?
Remember that she lives a bit far from the city.
That is true. And she would have sent us a text if she had gotten home.
Exactly.
So we shouldn’t worry, right?
No, I’m sure she will let us know when she arrives.
Yeah, you’re right.
Look, she just texted me.
What did she say?
She is not home yet. There’s a delay with the train.
At least now we know she is fine.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 2
Condicional compuesto – Conditional perfect
We use the conditional perfect to talk about different kinds of hypothetical scenarios in the past.
Let’s listen to the following examples:
- Nosotros habríamos ido a la playa, pero llovía mucho. (We would have gone to the beach, but it was raining a lot.)
- No sé qué habría hecho sin tu ayuda. (I don’t know what I would have done without your help.)
- A Juan le habría gustado ser actor. (Juan would have liked to be an actor.)
To form a sentence with the conditional perfect, we will need the simple conditional form of haber and a verb in past participle.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 3
Haber | Header |
|---|---|
yo habría | nosotros, nosotras habríamos |
tú habrías | ellos, ellas, ustedes habrían |
él, ella, usted habría | Cell |
- Nosotros habríamos ido a la playa.
- No sé qué habríamos hecho sin tu ayuda.
We can use the conditional perfect to talk about something we would have liked to do in the past, but for some reason we didn’t do it. This reason is usually expressed with the imperfect preterite, or the indefinite preterite.
Speaking Practice Exercise 1
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 4
- Yo te habría ayudado con tu tarea, pero estaba ocupada. (I would have helped you with your homework, but I was busy.)
- Nosotros habríamos ido al cine con ustedes, pero no teníamos dinero. (We would have gone to the movies with you, but we didn’t have any money.)
- Yo habría estudiado medicina, pero no entré en la universidad. (I would have studied medicine, but I didn’t get into the university.)
We can talk about something that was possible because of an extraordinary circumstance, or how things would have happened differently under different conditions.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 5
- Sin tu cámara no habría tomado fotos tan hermosas. (Without your camera, I wouldn’t have taken such beautiful pictures.)
- No habría cabido tanta gente en mi casa. (This many people wouldn’t have fit in my house.)
- Sin Lucía, Raúl no habría conseguido el trabajo. (Without Lucía, Raúl wouldn’t have gotten the job.)
We can also express past wishes we weren’t able to accomplish. Verbs such as gustar, encantar, and preferir are common here.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 6
- A mí me habría encantado que conocieras a mi abuela. (I would have loved for you to meet my grandmother.)
- Yo habría preferido viajar a Costa Rica en vez de Brasil. (I would have preferred to travel to Costa Rica instead of Brazil.)
- A mi papá le habría gustado que yo estudiara filosofía como él. (My dad would have liked me to study philosophy like him.)
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 7
Presente perfecto de subjuntivo – Present perfect subjunctive
The present perfect subjunctive can express wishes, probability, or doubts about future or past actions.
Let’s listen to the following examples:
- Puede que cuando yo vuelva ya se haya acabado el invierno. (Maybe by the time I’m back, winter will already be over.)
- Yo dudo que hayamos venido aquí alguna vez. (I doubt we have come here before.)
- No creo que mi mamá me haya llamado. (I don’t think mom has called me.)
- Yo quiero un profesor que haya vivido en Alemania. (I want a teacher that has lived in Germany.)
To form a sentence with the present perfect subjunctive, we will need the present subjunctive form of haber and a verb in past participle.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 8
Haber | Header |
|---|---|
yo haya | nosotros, nosotras hayamos |
tú hayas | ellos, ellas, ustedes hayan |
él, ella, usted haya | Cell |
- Puede que cuando yo vuelva ya se haya acabado el invierno.
- Yo dudo que hayamos venido aquí alguna vez.
We can use the present perfect subjunctive to talk about the probability of a future action which will happen before another moment or future action.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 9
- Tal vez el lunes ya tú hayas visto a Luis. (Maybe by Monday, you will have already seen Luis.)
- Es posible que para junio Pablo y Laura ya se hayan casado. (It is possible that by June, Pablo and Laura might already be married.)
- Probablemente cuando volvamos la cena ya esté lista. (It is likely that by the time we come back, dinner will be ready.)
We can express our opinion or judgement about past situations.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 10
- Me parece terrible que no hayas venido. (I think it’s awful that you didn’t come.)
- Me encanta que ustedes me hayan visitado. (I love that you guys came to visit.)
- Qué bien que te hayas divertido en el parque de diversiones. (How great that you had fun in the amusement park.)
We can express negated opinions or doubts about the past. The verbs creer, pensar, opinar, suponer, imaginar, parecer, saber, and dudo are common here.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 11
- No creo que Carlos haya aprendido mucho en clases. (I don’t think Carlos learned that much in class.)
- No sabemos cómo ellos hayan llegado a salvo. (We don’t know how they got home safe.)
- Dudo que mi primo me haya comprado algo en su viaje. (I doubt my cousin bought me something on his trip.)
We can also write sentences with relative clauses referring to something or someone we don’t know.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 12
- Me gustaría contratar a alguien que ya haya terminado su carrera. (I’d like to hire someone that has finished his career.)
- Nosotros debemos entrevistar a alguien que haya vivido la guerra. (We have to interview someone that has lived through the war.)
- Yo quiero un perro que ya haya sido entrenado. (I want a dog that has already been trained.)
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 13
Pretérito pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo – Pluperfect subjunctive
With the pluperfect subjunctive structure we can express wishes, doubt, subjectivity and even hypothetical scenarios in the past. It usually refers to an action that happened before a second action.
Let’s listen to the following examples:
- Ojalá tú hubieras podido ir con nosotros. (I wish you had been able to come with us.)
- Me habría gustado que Pedro hubiese ganado el concurso. (I would have liked it if Pedro had won the contest.)
- Dudo que a Ana le hubiera gustado el pollo. (I doubt Ana would have liked the chicken.)
- Si me hubieras dicho, yo te habría llevado allá. (If you had told me, I would have taken you there.)
To form a sentence with the conditional perfect, we will need the pluperfect subjunctive form of haber and a verb in past participle.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 14
Haber | Header |
|---|---|
yo hubiera/hubiese | nosotros, nosotras hubiéramos/hubiésemos |
tú hubieras/hubieses | ellos, ellas, ustedes hubieran/hubiesen |
él, ella, usted hubiera/hubiese | Cell |
- Ojalá tú hubieras podido ir con nosotros
- Dudo que a Ana le hubiera gustado el pollo.
We can express wishes in the past with the expression ojalá and the pluperfect subjunctive.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 15
- Ojalá hubiéramos comprado otra botella de vino. (I wish we had bought another bottle of wine.)
- Ojalá mi papá hubiese llamado. (I wish my dad had called.)
- Ojalá hubiese tenido el dinero para comprarlo. (If only I had had the money to buy it.)
We can express our feelings towards an unreal situation. The verb in the main clause is conjugated in the conditional perfect habría.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 16
- A mí me habría encantado que él me hubiese invitado a salir. (I would have loved it if he had asked me out.)
- A mí me habría preocupado que tú te hubieses ido sola. (It would have worried me if you had left by yourself.)
- ¿A ti te habría sorprendido que ellos se hubieran casado? (Would you have been surprised if they had gotten married?)
We can also express negated opinions or doubt with the pluperfect subjunctive. The verbs creer, pensar, opinar, suponer, imaginar, parecer, saber, and dudo are common here.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 17
- No pienso que ella te hubiera dicho que no. (I don’t think she would have said no.)
- ¿Tú no crees que ella me hubiese contratado? (Don’t you think she would have hired me?)
- Dudo que Juan te hubiese caído bien. (I doubt you would have liked Juan.)
Speaking Practice Exercise 2
Lastly, we can talk about hypothetical scenarios in the past, or an unreal past. This is often referred to as an unreal conditional. The clause with the pluperfect subjunctive is preceded by si, and the verb in the main clause is conjugated in the conditional perfect habría.
Listen to Week 22 Day 3 Track 18
- Si no hubiese llovido, nosotros habríamos ido al partido de béisbol. (If it hadn’t rained, we would have gone to the baseball game.)
- Si yo no hubiese ido al bar, no habría conocido a Laura. (If I hadn’t gone to the bar, I wouldn’t have met Laura.)
- Yo me habría comprado un carro si hubiese ganado la lotería. (I would have bought a car if I had won the lottery.)
WEEK 22 DAY 3 REVIEW:
Today we went over different compound tenses: conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, and pluperfect subjunctive. Though they might seem similar in some ways, they vary depending on what you want to express. The present perfect subjunctive, for instance, is the only one of these which can have a future meaning. So try using them in different contexts so you get the hang of it.