6.5.4 The future perfect and the conditional perfect
The final two kinds of the perfect are the future perfect and the conditional perfect. These both have two uses that we will cover on this page. Just like all the other perfects, these two use a version of the verb “haber” and the past participle.
The future perfect
The future perfect is used in two ways: first it is used to say that before X happens at some point in the future, Y will have happened. The second way is also a use of the simple future: guessing. A speaker or writer can use the future perfect to make a guess about something that is unknown. Let’s see a few examples from readings in this book:
Una carta abierta a mi nieto o nieta, Juan Gelman: Habrás nacido algún día de octubre de 1976 en un campo de concentración del Ejército, el Pozo de Quilmes casi seguramente.
Los censores, Luisa Valenzuela: ¿qué habrá puesto en esa carta, qué habrá quedado adherido a esa hoja de papel que le envió a Mariana?)
In class: how is the future perfect used in our textual examples? Is it being used to talk about the future or is the author making a guess?
The conjugation of haber needed here is the future of haber. You may remember from the simple future lesson that “haber” has an irregular form. Here it is again:
| Person | Haber |
| Yo | habré |
| Tú/vos | habrás |
| El/Ella/Elle/Usted | habrá |
| Nosotros | habremos |
| Vosotras | habréis |
| Elles/Ustedes | habrán |
Activities for future perfect
Futuro perfecto (Guessing):
Futuro perfecto (Time sequence):
The conditional perfect
The final perfect is the conditional perfect. Just like the future perfect we commonly use the conditional perfect in two different ways. The first is to say “I would have done X” but for some reason “Y happened instead”. We also use the conditional perfect to make conjecture. The explanation of the use of the conditional to express conjecture is a little wordy but it’s worth it to read because as you’ll see from the example sentences, it really does occur in every day speech and writing. The conditional is used to make conjecture about a future event from a past perspective. Let’s see some examples from our texts in this book:
El país bajo mi piel, Gioconda Belli:
- Vergüenza me habría dado admitir lo mucho que odiaba disparar.
- ¿Quién habría podido predecir a mi hermano y a mí que un día yo estaría en La Habana, sentada en un mullido sofá, conversando con Fidel?
In class: how does Belli use the conditional in these two examples from her writing?
Activities: Conditional perfect
One last thing…
Just as we saw in the past subjunctive lesson, when a perfect is required in a counterfactual situation, we do use the pluperfect subjunctive in the “si-clause” and the conditional perfect in the other clause. Let’s see an example sentence:
Si yo hubiera sabido el resultado, jamás habría participado.
