Modal-ish stuff 1 - deber

Question

Hi all,

I was hoping to better understand an exercize I was doing earlier, perhaps with your help.

What would be the difference between the following? (I have included my vague guesses, some of which are of course wrong, since I´m not able to differentiate what all of these combinations mean, or if they are all even used. They were options on a multiple choice question)

1) Usted no debía escribir eso. ... should not have written that

2) Usted no debía haber escrito eso. ... should not have written that

3) Usted no debió escribir eso. ... should not write that

4) Usted no debería escribir eso ... should not write that

5) Usted no debe escribir eso .. must not write that

6) Usted no deberá escribir eso ... must not write that

Thanks for any help, and as a courtesy, I´d like to warn that I¨m probably going to come back and ask more like this, including the same thing with forms of poder.

Roger

Homework? jajajajajajajaja - rac1, Oct 10, 2013

haha. No, my homework is easier than this. This is more or less two duolingo multiple choice questions combined so I can cover all bases. - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

I know, I couldn't resist, jeje - rac1, Oct 10, 2013

Answer 1

Hi there. I am not fluent in English so I have problems myself translating modals but I will try to shed some light over the nuances of the meanings of your Spanish examples.

1. Usted no debía escribir eso. You shouldn't have written that. I'm not sure if you did it but you shouldn't; that's a fact. My guess: You should not have written that. ?

2. Usted no debía/debería haber escrito eso. This is: You shouldn't have written that and I know that you did. My guess: You should not have written that. ?

3. Usted no debió escribir eso. Equivalent to number 2. So my guess is: You should not have written that. (too) ?

4. Usted no debería escribir eso. That's an advice:You should not write that. ?

5. Usted no debe escribir eso.. That's a rule. Or an advice said emphatically. You must not write that. ?

6. Usted no deberá escribir eso. That's also a rule or an emphatic advice, but in/for the future. Given that you cannnot say "you will must", I think you have to use: You must not write that. ?

I hope this is helpful.

[Revise my English, please]

Excellent. Thanks much. #3 is the one that look weirdest to me, but that I stupidly clicked (not sure why) and thus got it wrong. - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

Fwiw, I don't think there is a factual difference between 1 and 2 in English. And if I'd had to guess which was was more definite in Spanish, I would have guessed the reverse of what you wrote. Darn, I have much to learn - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013

Answer 2

RelaxingCup has provided a nice answer.

To clarify; #1 is saying "must" in past imperfect tense and #3 "must" in past preterit tense.

Thanks Julian. I was struggling to think of a good use case for preterite vs imperfect but couldn't think of a concrete example. - rogspax, Oct 10, 2013