Word
De haber llamado, habría recibido la etiqueta de devolución.
Meaning
Had I called, I would have received the return label.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of De haber llamado, habría recibido la etiqueta de devolución.
de
of
recibir
to receive
haber
to have
llamar
to call
Questions & Answers about De haber llamado, habría recibido la etiqueta de devolución.
Why does the sentence start with De haber llamado instead of Si hubiera llamado?
De haber llamado is a more condensed, slightly more formal way of expressing the same idea as si hubiera llamado.
So:
- Si hubiera llamado, habría recibido la etiqueta de devolución.
- De haber llamado, habría recibido la etiqueta de devolución.
Both mean essentially the same thing: a past condition that did not happen, and its unreal result.
This de + infinitive structure is especially common in formal writing, customer service language, notices, and journalism. To an English speaker, it often feels a bit like Had he/she called, ... in English.
What exactly does haber llamado mean here?
Haber llamado is the perfect infinitive.
It is made with:
- haber
- here: haber llamado
It means to have called.
In this sentence, it refers to an action that would have happened before the result in the main clause.
So the timeline is:
- first: call
- then: receive the return label
That is why Spanish uses haber llamado rather than just llamar.
Why is it habría recibido?