"Could have"

Question

Is this how you say "You could have said 'no'." ?

Podrías haber dicho 'no'.

Answer 1

That's probably not incorrect, but I would normally say:

Podrías haber dicho que no.

Why do we need the "que" gintar ? - ian-hill, Aug 22, 2011

It is definitely not incorrect, but I would have used "que" too. - lazarus1907, Aug 22, 2011

As Lazarus says, it's not required. But I cannot explain exactly why it's normally said that way. Perhaps Lazarus can? - gintar77, Aug 22, 2011

Same occurs with "dir que sí". - gintar77, Aug 22, 2011

Thank you! - Anna, Aug 22, 2011

that should have been "decir" que sí :-/ - gintar77, Aug 22, 2011

Answer 2

Why do we need the "que" gintar ?

It's the difference between a direct and an indirect quote.

Answer 3

But I cannot explain exactly why it's normally said that way. Perhaps Lazarus can?

As Sam says, one is direct and another one indirect. People normally say "He said he wanted to sleep" (indirect style) more often than "He said: 'I want to sleep'" (direct style). The same happens with this sentence: people normally say "Podrías haber dicho que no [quieres / lo vas a hacer /... whatever]" (indirect style) rather than "Podrías haber dicho 'no'" (direct style). The peculiarity of using "que" (which is omitted in English) and leaving that "no" alone, with the rest of the sentence implicit is common in Spanish, but not in English.