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Might As Well Have Not Even ........

 

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  #1  
Old November 04, 2020, 04:00 PM
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Bobbert Bobbert is offline
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Might As Well Have Not Even ........

I heard this comment said in English the other day, and I wondered to myself how I would have translated it.

That blouse is so low-cut that she might as well have not even worn it.

I would have translated it as:

Esa blusa is tan escotada que ella más bien podría ni siquiera haberla llevada puesta.

How close did I come?
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  #2  
Old November 04, 2020, 09:41 PM
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Your sentence is a bit too complicated and it kind of feels grammatically awkward, but it would be understood in context.


Yet, a shorter sentence might work better. Some proposals:
-Esa blusa es/está tan escotada, que mejor no se la hubiera puesto. ("Estar" works here, because the speaker might be thinking there may be some arrangement to fix the problem.)
- ...que (mejor) no debería habérsela puesto.
- ...que no debió/debía ponérsela.
- ...que ni (siquiera) se la hubiera puesto. (Without "siquiera" is a bit) colloquial.)


As for your sentence:
Esa blusa es tan escotada que ella más bien podría ni siquiera haberla llevado puesta.
Or:
Esa blusa es tan escotada que más bien podría no haberla llevado puesta.

Notes:
1) I think "más bien" and "ni siquiera" don't work well together, so it's one or the other.
2) "Haber llevado" is a whole conjugation, so the past participle doesn't agree with the subject.
3) Even with these changes, the sentence is too complicated for daily speech, but it would be definitely understood in context and it would be grammatically correct.
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Old November 05, 2020, 05:53 PM
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Thank you, AngelicaDeAlquezar, for the corrections and suggestions. That clears it up for me.
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