Lesson 53: Past Tense (line): Could, Had and Would
Here we'll look at how to say what we could have done, had done and would have done!
Could
In English we use the same word "Could" to refer to both the past and the future.
- I could do it tomorrow
- I couldn't do it yesterday
In Spanish they are kept separate!
We already covered the way we say "could" in the future with 'poder' - "to be able to" by changing it to "would be able to". It acts exactly the same as the vast majority of verbs for the future .... almost.
What we should normally do is:
- We add 'ía' to the end of the verb
- That's it!
But 'poder' is such a popular verb and the 'e' in 'poderia' just slowed everyone down so it dropped out at some point and we are left with 'podría'.
When we are talking about a period of time in the past (a line in the past) we also covered previously how we change the verbs:
- For 'ar' verbs we take off the 'ar' and add 'aba'
- For 'er'/'ir' verbs we take off the 'er'/'ir' and add 'ía'
So for 'Poder' we get:
 Spanish |  English |
|---|---|
| Podía | I was able to / I could (paste) |
| Podíamos | We were able to / I could (paste) |
So let's think about this: "I couldn't do it because I didn't have the time".
For both parts of these sentences we need to consider if they involve a line in the paste or a dot - a period of time or a moment. Its safe to say they both refer to lines in the past.
When you couldn't do something it usually means that you weren't able to do it over a period of time and when you say you didn't have time you're not often referring to a specific moment.
So ... let's break it down:
- I couldn't do it - 'No podía hacerlo'
- because - 'porque'
- I didn't have - 'no tenía'
- the time - 'el tiempo'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| No podía hacerlo porque no tenía el tiempo | I couldn't do it because I didn't have the time |
There are places we could use both the line or the dot in the past. For example:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| No podía hacerlo ayer | I couldn't do it yesterday |
We haven't learnt the past tense of a dot in the past - a particular moment - but its just worth knowing now that there are not always strict rules if both ways are possible.
I have and I had
We've already looked at how to say "I have eaten" but when we say "I had eaten" this is one of those moments when we must use the line in the past.
And remember we need to get the form of the verb that always comes after 'haber' as we've looked at before:
- For 'ar' verbs we take off the 'ar' and add 'ado'
- For 'er'/'ir' verbs we take off the 'er'/'ir' and add 'ido'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Había comido | I had eaten |
| Ya había comido | I had eaten already |
This 'Ya' which means "already" normally goes at the beginning of the sentence while in English its natural home is at the end.
So let's try this "He wanted to dine with me but I had dined already"
- He wanted - 'Él quiería'
- to dine - 'cenar'
- with me - 'conmigo'
- but - 'pero'
- already - 'ya'
- I had dined - 'yo había cenado'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Él quería cenar conmigo pero ya yo había cenado | He wanted to dine with me but I had already dined |
Now something worth playing around with here is how easily you can change the meaning of a sentence because "I" and "he" both have the same verb forms - 'quería' and 'habría' so if we just dropped the 'yo' out of the sentence it would no longer be clear who we were talking about in the middle of the sentence. We could be saying:
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Él quería cenar conmigo pero ya había cenado | He wanted to dine with me but I had already dined |
| Él quería cenar conmigo pero ya había cenado | He wanted to dine with me but he had already dined |
| Él quería cenar conmigo pero ya había cenado | He wanted to dine with me but she had already dined |
So let's try another one: "He was looking for it because I had lost it"
We've got a new verb here = 'buscar' - to look for but we know all the rules to get the 'he' form so:
- We was looking for it - 'Él lo buscaba'
- because - 'porque'
- I had lost it - 'yo lo había perdido'
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Él lo buscaba por que yo lo había perdido | He wanted to dine with me but I had already dined |
Would have
'Haber' follows the standard rules for changing a verb from the "to" form to the "would" form
- We add 'ía' to the end
- That's it!
... except it also lost its 'e' just like when 'poder' became 'podría so also 'haber' lost its 'e' and became 'habría'.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Lo habría perdido | I would have lost it |
| Me habría perdido | I would have got lost (lost myself) |