Without a doubt, every Spanish speaker uses the conditional perfect tense daily to express things that would have happened if a certain situation had occurred.
Think of the sentence “I would have talked to you but I was busy” - this is the essence of the tense, something would have happened, if the situation had been different.
In this article, we’ll talk briefly about the theory, when to use it, and we’ll go over a bunch of examples together so that we can acquire this tense within the next 5 minutes.
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What’s The Conditional Perfect Tense In Spanish?
The conditional perfect tense in Spanish is used to talk about something that would have happened if certain conditional would had been met.
For example: I would have written this article sooner, but I needed an extra hour of sleep this morning. So, I would have written this article earlier, but something got in the way.
How To Form The Conditional Perfect Tense
The conditional tense is formed like many others such as the past perfect tense, which uses the auxiliary verb Haber + the past participle of a verb (Ex. Comprado). However, with this tense, we use the verb Haber in the conditional tense (Habría).
So, let’s take a look at some sentences to better grasp this concept.
Yo habría comprado la leche, pero la tienda estaba cerrada
(I would have bought the milk, but the store was closed)
Ella lo habría entendido, pero no estudió la noche anterior
(She would have understood, but she didn’t study the night before)
Tú habrías sido el candidato, pero no llegaste a la reunión
(You would have been the candidate, but you didn't make it to the meeting)
IMPORTANT TIP:
If you use the word “if” (si) with this conjugation, you must use the imperfect subjunctive tense afterward. Below is an example of how this works. The conditional perfect tense will be the color BLUE and the imperfect subjunctive will be the color ORANGE.
Yo lo habría comprado si tuviera el dinero
(I would have bought it if I had the money)
10 Common Spanish Verbs In The Conditional Perfect
Let's take a look at the 10 most common Spanish verbs in the conditional perfect tense. I suggest (if you can) that you write these down on a piece of paper and you go over them a couple more times. Good luck, you'll have them acquired in no time.
Comer (To eat)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría comido |
Tú (You) | Habrías comido |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría comido |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían comido |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos comido |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais comido |
Hablar (To talk)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría hablado |
Tú (You) | Habrías hablado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría hablado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían hablado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos hablado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais hablado |
Vivir (To live)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría vivido |
Tú (You) | Habrías vivido |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría vivido |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían vivido |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos vivido |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais vivido |
Trabajar (To work)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría trabajado |
Tú (You) | Habrías trabajado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría trabajado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían trabajado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos trabajado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais trabajado |
Estudiar (To study)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría estudiado |
Tú (You) | Habrías estudiado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría estudiado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían estudiado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos estudiado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais estudiado |
Llegar (To arrive)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría llegado |
Tú (You) | Habrías llegado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría llegado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían llegado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos llegado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais llegado |
Viajar (To travel)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría viajado |
Tú (You) | Habrías viajado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría viajado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían viajado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos viajado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais viajado |
Comprar (To buy)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría comprado |
Tú (You) | Habrías comprado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría comprado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían comprado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos comprado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais comprado |
Jugar (To play)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría jugado |
Tú (You) | Habrías jugado |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría jugado |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían jugado |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos jugado |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais jugado |
Aprender (To learn)
Subject | Conditional Perfect Tense |
Yo (I) | Habría aprendido |
Tú (You) | Habrías aprendido |
Él/Ella/Usted (He/She/You-Formal) | Habría aprendido |
Ellos/as/Ustedes (Them/You-Plural) | Habrían aprendido |
Nosotros/as (We) | Habríamos aprendido |
Vosotros/as (You-Plural | SPAIN) | Habríais aprendido |
Irregular Past Participles
Verb | Past Participle |
Ver | Visto |
Escribir | Escrito |
Abrir | Abierto |
Hacer | Hecho |
Volver | Vuelto |
Morir | Muerto |
Poner | Puesto |
Decir | Dicho |
Leer | Leído |
Conditional Perfect: Example Sentences
Yo habría comido la manzana, pero ya se echó a perder
(I would have eaten the apple, but it already went bad)
Ella habría hablado contigo si no hubieras dicho eso
(She would have talked with you if you didn’t say that)
Tú habrías vivido esa experiencia, pero no apareciste
(You would have lived that experience, but you didn’t show up)
Habríamos trabajado mucho más, pero la computadora no funcionaba
(We would have worked much more, but the computer wasn’t working)
Habrían estudiado, pero no tenían los libros
(They would have studied, but they didn’t have the books)
Yo habría llegado al sur, pero el carro dejó de funcionar
(I would have made it to the south, but the car stopped working)
Tú habrías viajado a México si tuvieras el dinero
(You would have traveled to Mexico if you had the money)
Él habría comprado el carro, pero no le gustó el color
(He would have bought the car, but he didn’t like the color)
Habríamos jugado con ustedes, pero no estábamos en el pueblo
(We would have played with you guys, but we weren’t in town)
Habrían aprendido más si hubieran escuchado de verdad
(They would’ve learned more if they would have really listened)