"I should have spoken to you"

Question

"I should have spoken" to you about the situation

Can you change this to the vocab/grammar instead of the proofreading section? - missy8888, Apr 27, 2012

how do i change it please - foysoy, Apr 27, 2012

You click on "edit" then in the scroll box where it currently says "proofreading," change it to the vocab/grammar option. :) - missy8888, Apr 27, 2012

Thank you missy8888 - foysoy, Apr 27, 2012

Answer 1

Debía haber hablado contigo acerca de la situación.

I should have spoken with you about the situation.

We could also use...

(Yo) debía haberte consultado sobre la situación.

I should have consulted you about the situation.

"Yo debía haber + past participle..." would start your sentence off as if you should have done something (but you didn't). "el asunto" would probably be better if you mean to say an issue or a topic that you want to "talk about."

Addition: You can use "debería," but you have to keep "haber" with that conjugation because "debería hacerlo" means "I must/ It's a good idea to do it. (now)" whereas "debería haberlo hecho" means "I should have done it. (In the past)"

I agree. "El asunto" is much better - 005faa61, Apr 26, 2012

Debía sounds odd to me. I would definitely use debería. - 00d312f5, Apr 26, 2012

Answer 2

I was just wondering whether the conditional form would be better suited to convey the sense of "should" ie, "debería".

Yes. I believe it would. - 00d312f5, Apr 26, 2012

Eddy, I didn't notice that, but you're right - 005faa61, Apr 26, 2012

I'll remember that :) - GuitarWarrior, Apr 26, 2012