Just like the present perfect and the past perfect, the conditional perfect tense is conjugated by using the conditional tense of haber as the auxiliary verb, followed by the past participle of the main verb.
- HabrÃamos comprado una casa.
- We would have bought a house.
Use the following conjugations of haber for the conditional perfect tense.
yo habrÃa… I would have
tú habrÃas… you would have
él/ella/usted habrÃa… he/she/you would have
nosotros habrÃamos… we would have
vosotros habrÃais… you all would have
ellos/ellas/ustedes habrÃan… they/you all would have
**Click here for a review of the past participle
The conditional perfect is primarily used to talk about hypothetical or untrue things in the past.
- A mi hija le habrÃa gustado no hacer su tarea.
- My daughter would have liked to not do her homework.
- Yo habrÃa ido con ellos pero no me invitaron.
- I would have gone with them but they didn’t invite me.
The conditional perfect is also used to talk about unreal conditions in the past. In such instances, a si clause is used in the past perfect subjunctive in the subordinate clause and the conditional perfect in the main clause.
- Ellos habrÃan escuchado si no les hubieras gritado.
- They would have listened if you had not yelled at them.
- Si hubiera tenido un coche nuevo, habrÃa conducido por todas partes.
- If I had had a new car I would have driven it all over.
Unlike in English when the auxiliary “have” and the main verb cannot be separated in the conditional perfect, in Spanish, haber and the past participle must stay together.
- A ustedes no les habrÃan gustado la pelÃcula.
- You guys would not have liked the movie.
- No habrÃas podido llegar a tiempo.
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- You wouldn’t have been able to arrive on time.
Since the auxiliary and main verb cannot be separated, object pronouns, as well as reflexive pronouns, must be placed before haber.
- Me habrÃa quedado en casa.
- I would have stayed home.
- Marcos lo habrÃa dicho.
- Marcos would have said it.
