Breakdown of De haber enviado la mercancía, habrían reembolsado el importe.
de
of
haber
to have
enviar
to send
el importe
the amount of money
Questions & Answers about De haber enviado la mercancía, habrían reembolsado el importe.
What does de haber enviado mean in this sentence?
Here, de haber enviado means if someone had sent.
It is a fairly formal, condensed way to express a past unreal condition. In full, the idea is:
- De haber enviado la mercancía...
- = Si hubieran enviado la mercancía...
- = If they had sent the goods...
So the whole sentence means something like:
- Had they sent the goods, they would have refunded the amount
- or more naturally in English, If they had sent the goods, they would have refunded the amount
Why is there no si?
Because Spanish can sometimes omit si in formal conditional expressions.
The pattern here is:
- de + haber + past participle
This works like a reduced version of an if clause. So:
- Si hubieran enviado la mercancía, habrían reembolsado el importe
- De haber enviado la mercancía, habrían reembolsado el importe
Both express the same basic idea.
For learners, the easiest way to think about it is:
- si hubieran enviado... = the more straightforward textbook version
- de haber enviado... = a more formal, compressed alternative
Why is it haber enviado and not just enviar?