Spanish B1.8 Listening Practice: Would Have
Listen to a B1 Spanish dialogue about would have, with audio, transcript, and grammar notes for language learning.
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Level
B1.8
Audio
Segmented audio
Transcript
23 segments
A short Spanish listening chapter with transcript.
Unit 5: add habria plus participle to what you already control, then say one short answer that reuses earlier Spanish instead of starting from a memorized phrase.
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1. Carmen · Teacher
Welcome to today's Spanish lesson! I'm Carmen, your host. Today, we are mastering how to say 'would have' in Spanish using the conditional perfect: 'habría' plus a past participle, like 'habría hablado' or 'habría comido'.
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2. Diego · Student
Hi Carmen! I'm Diego. I've always wanted to express hypothetical past actions smoothly in Spanish, like 'I would have eaten' or 'I would have spoken'.
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3. Carmen · Teacher
You're in the right place, Diego! Let's listen to a short conversation between Álvaro and Lucía as they discuss what they would have done if their travel plans had gone wrong.
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4. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
¿Qué habrías hecho tú si el tren no hubiera llegado a tiempo?
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5. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
Yo habría comido algo en el restaurante de la estación.
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6. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Yo también habría hablado con el camarero para reservar una mesa.
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7. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
En esa situación, habría esperado más.
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8. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Al menos todo salió bien y pudimos cenar a tiempo.
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9. Carmen · Teacher
Let's break down that dialogue sentence by sentence. First, Álvaro asked: '¿Qué habrías hecho tú si el tren no hubiera llegado a tiempo?' This means 'What would you have done if the train hadn't arrived on time?' He uses 'habrías' for 'you would have'.
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10. Diego · Student
Does 'habrías' change depending on who we are talking about?
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11. Carmen · Teacher
Yes! 'Habrías' is specifically the informal 'you' form of 'haber' in the conditional tense.
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12. Carmen · Teacher
Next, Lucía answered: 'Yo habría comido algo en el restaurante de la estación.' That means 'I would have eaten something in the station restaurant.' Notice our target structure: 'habría comido'.
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13. Diego · Student
Is 'habría comido' the same form for 'I would have eaten' and 'he or she would have eaten'?
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14. Carmen · Teacher
Exactly. 'Habría' works for 'yo', 'él', 'ella', and 'usted'.
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15. Carmen · Teacher
Then Álvaro said: 'Yo también habría hablado con el camarero para reservar una mesa.' Meaning 'I also would have spoken with the waiter to book a table.' Here we see 'habría hablado'.
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16. Diego · Student
So to form 'would have spoken', we just combine 'habría' with the participle 'hablado'?
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17. Carmen · Teacher
Precisely. Regular -ar verbs take -ado in the participle, giving us 'habría hablado'.
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18. Carmen · Teacher
After that, Lucía gave us our challenge sentence: 'En esa situación, habría esperado más.' This means 'In that situation, I would have waited longer.'
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19. Diego · Student
Does 'esperado más' literally mean 'waited more'?
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20. Carmen · Teacher
Yes, in Spanish 'esperar más' means both 'to wait more' and 'to wait longer'.
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21. Carmen · Teacher
Finally, Álvaro concluded: 'Al menos todo salió bien y pudimos cenar a tiempo.' Meaning 'At least everything turned out well and we were able to have dinner on time.'
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22. Diego · Student
What does 'al menos' mean in this context?
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23. Carmen · Teacher
It means 'at least', a very useful phrase when looking at the bright side of a situation!
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