Breakdown of Ojalá no hubieras hecho ese sacrificio profesional.
no
no, not
ese
that (masculine)
hacer
to do / to make
profesional
professional
haber
(auxiliary) have
ojalá
hopefully / I hope
el sacrificio
sacrifice
Questions & Answers about Ojalá no hubieras hecho ese sacrificio profesional.
Why do we use the past perfect subjunctive (hubieras hecho) here instead of just the past subjunctive (hicieras)?
The word ojalá expresses a strong wish. Because the wish is about a finished event in the past that cannot be changed (a past contrary-to-fact wish), Spanish requires the past perfect subjunctive. If you were wishing for something to not happen right now or in the future, you would use the imperfect subjunctive (ojalá no hicieras eso meaning 'I wish you wouldn't do that').
How is the verb phrase hubieras hecho formed in this sentence?
It uses the past perfect subjunctive, which requires two parts: the imperfect subjunctive of the helping verb haber (which is hubieras for the tú form), followed by the past participle of the main verb. Here, the main verb is hacer, which has the irregular past participle hecho. Keep in mind that the past participle in these compound tenses never changes gender or number to match the speaker or listener.
Could hubieras also refer to 'I' or 'he/she' in this tense?
Why is it ese sacrificio instead of eso sacrificio?
Sacrificio is a masculine singular noun, so it takes the masculine singular demonstrative adjective ese (that). A common mistake at this level is using eso before masculine nouns, but eso is a neuter pronoun. You only use eso when referring to an abstract idea, an unknown object, or a general situation where there is no specific noun attached.
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