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Me mostró un ataúd asqueroso. ¡Ni que hubiera visto algo tan feo!

Me mostró un ataúd asqueroso. ¡Ni que hubiera visto algo tan feo!
He showed me a disgusting coffin. As if I had seen something so ugly!
From Lesson 452:Indignant rejection (¡ni que!)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Me mostró un ataúd asqueroso. ¡Ni que hubiera visto algo tan feo!

What exactly does ¡Ni que! mean here, and why does it trigger the subjunctive?
¡Ni que! is a highly colloquial phrase used to reject a situation with indignation or sarcasm, closely matching the English "As if!" It always triggers the subjunctive because it introduces an absurd or completely hypothetical scenario that isn't true.
Why use the past perfect subjunctive (hubiera visto) instead of the imperfect subjunctive (viera)?
The choice depends on the timeline. We use the past perfect subjunctive (hubiera visto) because the hypothetical seeing is rooted entirely in the past (the speaker is reacting to an event that already happened). If they were rejecting a present or ongoing idea, like "As if I look at ugly things all the time," they would use the imperfect subjunctive (viera).
Could I just say ¡Como si hubiera visto algo tan feo! instead?
Yes! Como si also means "as if" and takes the exact same subjunctive tenses. The difference is tone: ¡ni que! is more informal and packs a much stronger punch of sarcasm, shock, or indignation, which perfectly fits a reaction to a "disgusting coffin."
Because hubiera can mean "I had" or "he had," how do we know who is doing the seeing in that second sentence?
Context is your main clue here. The speaker is expressing their own shock at the coffin they were just shown, so it's naturally understood as "As if I had ever seen something so ugly." If this were truly ambiguous in a conversation, you would simply add the pronoun: ¡Ni que yo hubiera visto algo tan feo!
Why does ataúd have an accent mark on the ú?
The accent mark breaks what would normally be a single blended sound (a diphthong) into two distinct syllables. Without it, the strong a and weak u would run together. The accent creates a "hiatus," ensuring the word is pronounced a-ta-úd.

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