📖LearnModule 9 · Lesson 8 of 30Independent User · CEFR B2, completedUnit 2 · El arrepentimiento y el reproche
Si hubiera sabido — the unreal past
Module 9 of the free Spanish course (CEFR B2, completed), lesson 8 of 30: The third si-sentence is the unreal past: si plus the pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
The words
Spanish
English
Say it
si hubiera sabido
if I had known
see oo-BYEH-rah sah-BEE-doh
no habría venido
I would not have come
noh ah-BREE-ah beh-NEE-doh
irreal
unreal
ee-rreh-AHL
el pasado lejano
the distant past
ehl pah-SAH-doh leh-HAH-noh
cambiar el pasado
to change the past
kahm-BYAR ehl pah-SAH-doh
imposible
impossible
eem-poh-SEE-bleh
el azar
chance
ehl ah-SAR
finalmente
finally
fee-nahl-MEHN-teh
tú habrías sabido qué hacer
you would have known what to do
too ah-BREE-ahs sah-BEE-doh keh ah-SEHR
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
The third si-sentence is the unreal past: si plus the pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo, then the condicional compuesto. Si hubiera sabido, no habría venido — if I had known, I would not have come.
Y también · And also
It is the one you use when it is genuinely too late, and it is the most quoted line in Spanish regret: ¡si hubiera sabido! The si-half never takes a condicional — that is the rule that survives every level. Tú habrías sabido qué hacer: you would have known what to do.
Ojo · Watch out
si hubiera sabido, no habría venido: the si-half takes hubiera + participle, never habría. si habría sabido is the error this lesson exists to prevent.
haber, imperfecto de subjuntivo — the table
yo hubiera · tú hubieras · él/ella/usted hubiera · nosotros hubiéramos · ustedes hubieran · ellos/ellas hubieran
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with si hubiera sabido.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out haber, imperfecto de subjuntivo and saber, condicional compuesto in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.