Conditional Perfect in Spanish

The Conditional Perfect in Spanish

The Conditional Perfect in Spanish which is known as Past Conditional is used to express probability in the past for something that would have been done but wasn’t, many times showing courtesy, desire, advise or recrimination.

As well as the other Perfect tenses, the Conditional Perfect in Spanish is formed with:
Haber (in its conditional conjugation) + participle. These are the conjugations of the verb “haber” in the Spanish Conditional Perfect:

For example:

1. Habrías llamado al médico cuando te enfermaste. (Pero no lo hiciste)
(You would have called the doctor when you got sick– but you didn’t.)

2. Lucía despidió al trabajador. Yo habría intentado hablar con él.
(Lucia fired the worker. I would have tried talking to him.)

3. Lucía le pegó al ladrón. Yo habría hecho lo mismo.
(Lucia hit the thief. I would have done the same thing.)

4. Sin chaqueta habrías sufrido mucho frío. (Qué bueno que llevaste chaqueta).
(Without a jacket, you would have been very cold—it is a good thing you took a jacket with you.)
5. Juan asegura que yo habría viajado a pesar de la nieve.
(Juan assures that I would have traveled in spite of the snow.)

A good way to practice at home is by taking all the examples above and changing the pronouns and conjugations for every person possible. (i.e.: In example #1 you will see that it is targeted for the pronoun “Yo”. Take the sentence and change the conjugation of the verb “haber” for “Yo” for the conjugation of “haber” for the pronoun “Tú”, then to Él, etc., and keep doing that for every example).  When you are finished with all 5 of the examples you will feel more comfortable with the Conditional Perfect in Spanish.