Poder conji12/22/2023 Let’s look at specific examples:Ĭould Have, Should Have, May Have, Must Have (using poder & deber)Īs we saw above, ‘ could‘ and ‘ should‘ used poder and deber conjugated in the conditional tense followed by the infinitive. When we conjugate verbs directly (when they don’t have a preceding verb), we conjugating haber instead of the main verb. The main verb will follow haber and be conjugated into the past participle. When we conjugate either poder or deber as preceding verbs, they are then be followed by the infinitive form of haber and the past participle of the main verb. Similar to what we saw above, some cases will again use the preceding verbs poder and deber, while others simply a specific conjugation. We can follow the same structure in Spanish, adding the verb ‘ haber‘ ( to have) and the past participle.īut it’s not exactly the same in every case. I could eat breakfast –> I could have eaten breakfast The difference is the additional ‘ have‘ which changes the tense into the past and the past participle which changes the verb from something like eat to eaten. Remembering what we’ve just learned, let’s add another layer of complexity.Ĭoulda, shoulda, woulda, while not proper English, are expressions widely recognized as referring to a hypothetical past. Take a look at the following table summarizing how to translate each modal verb into Spanish. There is no preceding verb in these cases. This is the case for may, will, or would, which all use associated tenses ( the subjunctive, the future, and the conditional respectively).įor example, to say ‘ I will go‘, you need only conjugate the verb ir (which means ‘to go’) in the future tense – Yo iré to say ‘I would go’ it’s yo iría. Yo podría comer desayuno = I could eat breakfastįinally, in some cases we don’t need to use a preceding verb like poder or deber, but instead just conjugate the main verb in a specific tense. Yo puedo comer desayuno = I can eat breakfast This is similarly the case when the verb poder is used before the main verb expressed in the present tense it means ‘ can‘, in the conditional it means ‘ could‘. Yo debería ir al medico = I should go to the doctor Yo debo ir al medico = I must go to the doctor When we translate into Spanish, we sometimes use specific verbs preceding the main verb and sometimes just specific tenses.įor example, deber used before a verb can mean ‘ must‘ or ‘ should‘ depending on how it’s conjugated when conjugated in the present it means ‘ must‘, when conjugated in the conditional it means ‘ should‘. In Spanish, we cannot always use a direct translation of English modal verbs.
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