Spanish B1.20 Listening Practice: Should Have
Listen to a B1 Spanish dialogue about should have, with audio, transcript, and grammar notes for language learning.
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Level
B1.20
Audio
Segmented audio
Transcript
23 segments
A short Spanish listening chapter with transcript.
Unit 6: add deberia haber plus participle to what you already control, then say one short answer that reuses earlier Spanish instead of starting from a memorized phrase.
Read while you listen.
1. Carmen · Teacher
Welcome back! I'm Carmen, and today we're exploring how to express regrets and past recommendations in Spanish using debería haber plus a past participle.
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2. Carmen · Teacher
Let's listen to a short conversation between Álvaro and Lucía.
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3. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Ayer perdí el autobús a Madrid por llegar tarde.
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4. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
¡Qué pena! Deberías haber salido de casa mucho antes.
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5. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Lo sé, debería haber llamado a un taxi para llegar a tiempo.
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6. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
O deberías haber esperado al siguiente autobús sin preocuparte tanto.
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7. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Tienes razón, la próxima vez lo haré mejor.
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8. Carmen · Teacher
Álvaro starts by saying: Ayer perdí el autobús a Madrid por llegar tarde. He means 'Yesterday I missed the bus to Madrid because I arrived late.'
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9. Diego · Student
Why does Álvaro use por llegar instead of porque llegué?
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10. Carmen · Teacher
Great question, Diego! Using por plus an infinitive is a concise way to express the cause of an action in Spanish.
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11. Carmen · Teacher
Next, Lucía says: ¡Qué pena! Deberías haber salido de casa mucho antes. Meaning 'What a shame! You should have left home much earlier.'
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12. Diego · Student
So deberías haber salido means 'you should have left'?
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13. Carmen · Teacher
Exactly! Deberías is the conditional form of deber for 'you', followed by haber and the past participle salido.
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14. Carmen · Teacher
Then Álvaro replies: Lo sé, debería haber llamado a un taxi para llegar a tiempo. He says 'I know, I should have called a taxi to arrive on time.'
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15. Diego · Student
Is debería haber llamado referring to 'I' here?
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16. Carmen · Teacher
Yes! Debería is the first-person conditional form here, so debería haber llamado means 'I should have called.'
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17. Carmen · Teacher
Lucía then suggests: O deberías haber esperado al siguiente autobús sin preocuparte tanto. Meaning 'Or you should have waited for the next bus without worrying so much.'
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18. Diego · Student
How is deberías haber esperado formed?
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19. Carmen · Teacher
It combines deberías haber with the participle esperado from the verb esperar, creating 'you should have waited.'
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20. Carmen · Teacher
Finally, Álvaro ends with: Tienes razón, la próxima vez lo haré mejor. He means 'You're right, next time I'll do better.'
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21. Diego · Student
Is la próxima vez the standard phrase for 'next time' in Castilian Spanish?
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22. Carmen · Teacher
Yes, Diego, la próxima vez is extremely natural and widely used.
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23. Carmen · Teacher
That brings us to the end of today's lesson. Keep practicing with debería haber to talk about past possibilities with confidence!
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