Lesson 55

Could Have, Should Have, Would Have

Language Transfer Complete Spanish is by Mihalis Eleftheriou. Listen to the original audio first; use these notes for revision.

With habría (would have), debería haber (should have), and podría haber (could have), you can express regret, speculation, and missed opportunities.

La fiesta = party (related to festival — notice the e splitting: festival → fiesta).

Roto = broken (irregular participle from romper). Muerto = dead (from morir). Abierto = open (from abrir). Dicho = said (from decir). Hecho = done/made (from hacer).

Me muero = I'm dying (figurative — very common for "I'm exhausted/starving"). Estoy muerta = I'm dead (same figurative use).

All irregular past participles

Verb	Participle	English
hacer	hecho	done/made
decir	dicho	said/told
ver	visto	seen
poner	puesto	put
escribir	escrito	written
volver	vuelto	returned
abrir	abierto	opened
romper	roto	broken
morir	muerto	died/dead

Sentences practiced

Spanish	English
Está cancelado.	It's cancelled. (masculine)
Está cancelada.	It's cancelled. (feminine)
Se ha complicado.	It's gotten complicated.
Complicado.	Complicated.
Es complicado.	It's complicated. (ser)
Está complicado.	It's complicated. (estar)
Debería haber cancelado.	I should have cancelled.
Lo debería haber cancelado.	I should have cancelled it.
Debería haberlo cancelado.	I should have cancelled it.
Podría.	I could.
Podría haber ido.	I could have gone.
Podríamos haber ido.	We could have gone.
Lo he roto.	I've broken it.
Los he roto.	I've broken them.
Se ha roto.	It has broken.
Está roto.	It's broken. (masculine)
Está rota.	It's broken. (feminine)
Ha muerto.	He has died.
Está muerto.	He's dead.
Estoy muerta.	I'm dead. (figurative)
Me muero.	I'm dying.
Abrir.	To open.
Está abierto.	It's open.
Están abiertos.	They're open.
Lo he dicho.	I've said it.
Le he dicho.	I've told him.
Le hemos dicho.	We've told him.
Lo he hecho.	I've done it.
Debería haberlo hecho.	I should have done it.
Deberías haberlo hecho.	You should have done it.
Está hecho.	It's done.