B1 · Intermediate

The conditional perfect (condicional compuesto)

Habría + past participle: what could or should have happened, but didn't.

Formation: habría + past participle

The conditional perfect (also called condicional perfecto) has two parts:

the auxiliary haber in the conditional (habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, habríais, habrían)
the past participle of the main verb (-ado / -ido), which never changes for gender or number.

For example: habría hablado, habrías comido, habría vivido.

	hablar	comer	vivir
yo	habría hablado	habría comido	habría vivido
tú	habrías hablado	habrías comido	habrías vivido
él/ella/usted	habría hablado	habría comido	habría vivido
nosotros/as	habríamos hablado	habríamos comido	habríamos vivido
vosotros/as	habríais hablado	habríais comido	habríais vivido
ellos/ellas/ustedes	habrían hablado	habrían comido	habrían vivido

Examples

Habría llamado, pero perdí tu número.I would have called, but I lost your number.

¿Tú qué habrías hecho en mi lugar?What would you have done in my place?

Habríamos llegado antes sin el atasco.We would have arrived earlier without the traffic jam.

Irregular past participles

A number of common verbs have an irregular past participle. That form stays the same no matter who the subject is:

hacer → hecho
decir → dicho
escribir → escrito
ver → visto
poner → puesto
volver → vuelto
abrir → abierto
romper → roto
morir → muerto
cubrir → cubierto

Examples

Yo no lo habría hecho así.I wouldn't have done it that way.

Ella habría dicho la verdad.She would have told the truth.

¿Habrías abierto la puerta?Would you have opened the door?

Use: hypothetical past (the third conditional)

The conditional perfect describes what would have happened under different circumstances in the past — something that did NOT happen. It typically appears in the main clause of a third conditional ('si') sentence:

si + pluperfect subjunctive, ... conditional perfect

You'll study this combination in more depth in the subjunctive chapter, but it's good to recognise the basic structure now.

Examples

Si hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado el examen.If I had studied more, I would have passed the exam.

Si hubiéramos salido antes, no habríamos perdido el tren.If we had left earlier, we wouldn't have missed the train.

Habría venido a la fiesta, pero estaba enfermo.I would have come to the party, but I was sick.

Use: conjecture about the past

Just as the simple conditional can express a guess about the past (Serían las diez — 'it was probably ten o'clock'), the conditional perfect expresses a guess about something that had already been completed at a certain point in the past.

Examples

Ya habrían llegado cuando empezó a llover.They had probably already arrived when it started raining.

No contestó; se habría quedado sin batería.He didn't answer; his battery had probably died.

💡 Tips

💡

Remember: the past participle after 'habría' NEVER changes — no -a, -os, -as, regardless of the subject.

💡

Don't confuse 'habría' (conditional perfect, would have) with 'había' (pluperfect, had) — the stress and meaning are quite different.

💡

Learn the irregular participles as a fixed set: hecho, dicho, escrito, visto, puesto, vuelto, abierto, roto, muerto, cubierto.

🎯 Practise this topic with 10 interactive exercises (10)

🔧 Verbs: Conditional perfect

Related grammar

Formation of the present subjunctive

Learn how to form the present subjunctive from the yo-form, including stem changes, spelling changes and the key irregular verbs.

Subjunctive with wishes and emotions

Discover when you need the subjunctive after verbs of wish and emotion (querer que, esperar que, ojalá, me alegro de que...).

Subjunctive with doubt and opinion

Learn the difference between creo que (indicative) and no creo que (subjunctive), and when dudar, es posible que and quizás require the subjunctive.

Subjunctive in time clauses

Learn when cuando, antes de que, hasta que, en cuanto and mientras require the subjunctive (future) and when the indicative (habit, past).

← Futuro perfecto (future perfect)Reported speech (estilo indirecto) →

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