Mixed Grammar Questions

[Quaeso]

"Me hubieses llamado antes de traer el celphone Anyway Gracias."


This is a message that my Puerto Rican friend sent about dropping off a phone. Would you call hubieses llamado active pluperfect subjunctive? I'm guessing that it expresses a desire (I wish that you would have) instead of an obligation (e.g. you should have), and therefore takes the subjunctive? [Deseo que] me hubieses llamado antes de traer..."?

[aleCcowaN]

Subjunctive here points to the fact you didn't perform that action (llamar), what would have been preferable from the point of view of the speaker, all said in a friendly and non-confrontational tone (another use of subjunctive mood).

[Quaeso]

Thank you, how would you say instead, "you ought to have called before..." Would you need the verb deber?

[aleCcowaN]

Deberías haber llamado

but this is less friendly than the other one

I don't know the circumstances that motivated the original phrase. It might have been you drove bringing the cell phone to find nobody was there at the moment. Or you appeared there unannounced and the person was caught wearing beloved rags after drinking the last beer and eating the last dorito, so they had nothing to put on the table but coffee or a glass of Kool-Aid.

[Quaeso]

Deberías haber llamado

but this is less friendly than the other one

I don't know the circumstances that motivated the original phrase. It might have been you drove bringing the cell phone to find nobody was there at the moment. Or you appeared there unannounced and the person was caught wearing beloved rags after drinking the last beer and eating the last dorito, so they had nothing to put on the table but coffee or a glass of Kool-Aid.


Oh you make me laugh. Her son's phone had fallen out of his pocket in my car, and after work near midnight, I hung the phone from the door-knob without calling beforehand. But of course she wanted me to wake her up with a call so that she could thank me nicely and offer snacks and apple juice (too late for her coffee).

But I ask about deber only hypothetically, to learn about the idiom; and if that is the most common way to express obligation. With deberías, why conditional instead of the subjunctive like hubieras? or why not even debiste? too harsh?

[aleCcowaN]

deberías haber llamado...=you should have called (I regret you didn't call)
debiste llamar= [you must have called] (You failed to fulfil the obligation/formality of calling first)
hubieras llamado (asked and answered)

Similar to ir/irse (go/leave), in this case different tenses translate into different verbs.