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In Spanish we can express "you should/shouldn't [have done something]", as a reproach, by using this structure:
Haber/No haber + past participle of main verb
For example:
-Qué poco dinero tengo en el banco. -¡Haber ahorrado un poco más!-I hardly have any money in the bank. -You should have saved a bit more!
-Llevo días sin dormir. -¡Habérmelo dicho, hombre! No sabía nada.-I haven't slept in days. -You should have told me, mate! I didn't know.
-No me gusta nada mi trabajo nuevo. -Pues, haberlo pensado mejor antes de decir que sí.-I don't like my new job at all. -Well, you should have thought about it more carefully before saying yes.
-El fontanero me ha cobrado mucho por arreglarme el grifo. -¡Haber llamado a Juan! Es un manitas y super barato.-The plumber charged me a lot for fixing the tap [US: faucet]. -You should have called Juan! He is a handyman and super cheap.
It often uses direct and indirect pronouns. Remember that:
- they are placed immediately after "haber", as part of the same word.
- If there are two different pronouns, i.e. direct and indirect pronouns, the indirect one goes first, then the direct pronoun:
¡Habérmelo dicho, hombre!
(Lit: You should have told me it.)
me = indirect pronoun; lo = direct pronoun
One way to remember this structure is to see it as a construction where we are omitting the first modal verb: "deberías/deberíais".
For example, the literal translation of:
"You should have told me."
is:
Deberías/deberíais habérmelo dicho.
You omit "deberías/deberíais" and use the haber + past participle construction:
Deberías/deberíais habérmelo dicho. = ¡Habérmelo dicho!
Bear in mind that sometimes, (more often in Latin America), El Pluscuamperfecto de Subjuntivo may also be used with the same purpose. For example:
In this case, the pronouns are placed in front of "hubiera/hubiese".
See also How to say "must have [done something] in Spanish with the verb deber
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