Should have

Question

Hi all.

I'm just doing some revision on tenses, and wanted to ask:

I've found three sentence structures that could apparently be translated as ' I should have'

Yo debería

Yo habría debido

Yo hubiera debido

Is there any real difference between the three for comprehension purposes? Any preference for one being better than another?

Thanks

Answer 1

The most common way, ie: I should have done it ... Lo debería haber hecho.

Exactamente. - Daniela2041, Jun 12, 2017

Answer 2

"¿Llamó su madre?" es preguntar "Did your mother call?"

Debiste decir, "¿Llamó a su madre?" "Did you call your mother?"

— ¿Llamó a su madre?

— No, no la llamé. Lo hubiera hecho sino que se me perdió el celular.

"Did you call your mother?"

"No, I didn't call her. I would have done it, but my phone was lost."

Don Bigote is right ,. Llamó a su madre is you called your mother. One thing Bigote . The use of "sino" isn't correct in my opinion. Lo hubiera hecho PERO se me perdió el celular. I know sino is very difficult but it shouldn't go here. - polenta1, Jun 12, 2017

For example: Yo no la llamé sino que ella me llamó a mí. I hope you don't get angry. - polenta1, Jun 12, 2017

Quite all right. I meant to convey the sense of "except that". For that reason, "sino que". ¿Así no es bien escrita? - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jun 13, 2017

Excepto que or salvo que could be but for me it's "`pero". - polenta1, Jun 13, 2017

Polenta, I did see in the DRAE that "sino" as "pero" is an old definition. But, "sino" as "except" is correct. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jun 13, 2017

Answer 3

—Llamó su madre? / Did you call your mother?

—No, llamaría a lo, pero perdí mi celular. / No, I would call her, but I lost my cell phone.

—No, lo habria llamado, pero olvidé. / No, I would have called her, but I forgot.

No, llamaría a lo, pero perdí mi celular.

That doesn't seem right. It should be: No, la llamaría, pero perdí mi celular

And this: No, lo habria llamado, pero olvidé should be:

No, la habria llamado, pero lo olvidé

Answer 4

To clarify... I probably should have said as part of a sentence such as. I should have bought it or I should have gone to specsavers....

Answer 5

"I should have" as a complete sentence doesn't translate well to Spanish. Deber is not intransitive verb, which means that it can't stand alone in a sentence like that. It has to have more context, and the context you use will change the meaning of "debes."

Just for example:

Yo te debería lo. / I would owe you it (some mutually understandable object) (if something else not happened or intervened).

If you want to say something like "I should have" in response to or as a continuation of something that's already been addressed in conversation, you would repeat that verb in the tense that best fits the situation.

The following question could be answered in English with "I should have," but in Spanish, the answer needs more context to make sense:

—Llamó su madre? / Did you call your mother?

—No, llamaría a lo, pero perdí mi celular. / No, I would call her, but I lost my cell phone.

—No, lo habria llamado, pero olvidé. / No, I would have called her, but I forgot.

You wouldn't really use hubiera llamado in this case, since that's the subjunctive perfect conditional. It's the same tense as habria llamado, but it has a different mood, which is only used when expressing something that might not be true. The speaker in this case would know, for a fact, that they would have called their mother (or know for a fact they would not have). You can't really express doubt over something you would have done.

But I think some of the regulars and native speakers might be able to explain this better, but I hope this helps a little!

Answer 6

Hello ignatiusa,

Welcome to our Spanishdict community forum

You gave these examples in a follow up post when you said:

To clarify... I probably should have said as part of a sentence such as. I should have bought it or I should have gone to specsavers

I should have bought it = Lo debería haber comprado

I should have gone to Specsavers (Yo) Debería ido a Specsavers

Although you could also say:

I should have visited Specsavers = Debería haber visitado Specsavers

I hope This helps

Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor

Answer 7

My Pimsleur course used the form "Lo debía haber comprado" for "I should have bought it."

It seems to me when you get into the imperfect verses the conditional with "deber," there may be some overlap as to what is proper. ¿Si o No?

Wink I always understood debería in the condicional to mean 'should' but debe, debes debía to mean 'must' which a lot stronger! I could be wrong/misunderstanding in my understanding though! - FELIZ77, Jun 13, 2017

Correction: which IS a lot stronger - FELIZ77, Jun 13, 2017

You could be right, Feliz. I'll have to go back and review that bit of the course. - Winkfish, Jun 14, 2017