Breakdown of Ich wollte absagen, aber ich hätte keine Ausrede gehabt.
ich
I
haben
to have
aber
but
kein
no, not any
wollen
to want
absagen
to cancel
die Ausrede
the excuse
Questions & Answers about Ich wollte absagen, aber ich hätte keine Ausrede gehabt.
Why is it hätte ... gehabt here instead of just hatte?
This uses the past tense of the subjunctive (Konjunktiv II), which we use for conditions that did not actually happen. hatte is the real past and means you literally had something. hätte gehabt means you would have had it in an alternate, imagined past.
How does the word order work with hätte and gehabt?
Just like in the regular perfect tense (ich habe gehabt), the conjugated helping verb (hätte) takes the second position in the clause, and the past participle (gehabt) is kicked all the way to the end. The word aber is a coordinating conjunction taking position zero, so ich is position one and hätte is position two.
Why use keine instead of nicht to say that you would not have had an excuse?
In German, when you negate a noun that has an indefinite article (an excuse) or no article, you must use kein-. Since die Ausrede is a feminine noun, it takes the ending for feminine objects: keine Ausrede.
Why does the first part use wollte instead of the spoken past tense habe gewollt?
wollte is the simple past (Präteritum) of the modal verb wollen. Even in conversational German, which normally prefers the perfect tense for past events, modal verbs are almost always used in their simple past forms because they are much easier to say and sound more natural.
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