Después de aprender Would For Past Actions, en está lección aprenderás Modals in the Past.
Should have, could have, and would have a veces se denominan «modales de oportunidad pérdida” porque describen situaciones en las que imaginamos que el pasado fue diferente.
Could have + past participle
Could have + past participle significa que algo era posible en el pasado, o que tenía la capacidad de hacer algo en el pasado, pero que no lo hizo.
- I could have stayed up late, but I decided to go to bed early.
- They could have won the race, but they didn’t try hard enough.
- Julie could have bought the book, but she borrowed it from the library instead.
- He could have studied harder, but he was too lazy and that’s why he failed the exam.
Couldn’t have + past participle significa que algo no era posible en el pasado, incluso si hubiera querido hacerlo.
- I couldn’t have arrived any earlier. There was a terrible traffic jam (= it was impossible for me to have arrived any earlier).
- He couldn’t have passed the exam, even if he had studied harder. It’s a really, really difficult exam.
Could have + past participle cuando queremos adivinar algo que sucedió en el pasado. En este caso, no sabemos si lo que decimos es cierto o no. Solo estamos hablando de nuestra opinión sobre lo que quizás sucedió.
Why is John late?
- He could have got stuck in traffic.
- He could have forgotten that we were meeting today.
- He could have overslept.
Should have + past participle
Should have + past participle puede significar algo que hubiera sido una buena idea, pero que usted no lo hizo. Es como dar un consejo sobre el pasado cuando se lo dices a otra persona, o lamentar lo que hiciste o no hiciste cuando hablas de ti mismo.
Should have + past participle means that something wasn’t a good idea, but you did it anyway.
- I should have studied harder! (= I didn’t study very hard and so I failed the exam. I’m sorry about this now.)
- I should have gone to bed early (= I didn’t go to bed early and now I’m tired).
- I shouldn’t have eaten so much cake! (= I did eat a lot of cake and now I don’t feel good.)
- You should have called me when you arrived (= you didn’t call me and I was worried. I wish that you had called me).
- John should have left early, then he wouldn’t have missed the plane (= but he didn’t leave early and so he did miss the plane).
Podemos usar should have + past participle para hablar de algo que, si todo es normal y correcto, pensamos que ya ha pasado. Pero no estamos seguros de que todo esté bien, por lo que usamos ‘debería tener’ y no el presente perfecto o el pasado simple. A menudo se usa con «by now«.
- His plane should have arrived by now (= if everything is fine, the plane has arrived).
- John should have finished work by now (= if everything is normal, John has finished work).
También podemos usar esto para hablar sobre algo que habría sucedido si todo hubiera estado bien, pero no ha sucedido.
- Lucy should have arrived by now, but she hasn’t.
Would have + past participle
Parte del third conditional.
If I had had enough money, I would have bought a car (but I didn’t have enough money, so I didn’t buy a car).
Debido a que «would» (y will) también se puede usar para mostrar si quieres hacer algo o no (volición), también podemos usar would have + past participle para hablar sobre algo que quisiste hacer pero no lo hiciste. Esto es muy similar al tercer condicional, pero no necesitamos una «cláusula if«.
- I would have gone to the party, but I was really busy.
(= I wanted to go to the party, but I didn’t because I was busy. If I hadn’t been so busy, I would have gone to the party.) - I would have called you, but I didn’t know your number.
(= I wanted to call you but I didn’t know your number, so I didn’t call you.) - A: Nobody volunteered to help us with the fair
B: I would have helped you. I didn’t know you needed help.
(= If I had known that you needed help, I would have helped you.)
En la próxima lección aprenderás Relative Clauses.
