Breakdown of La suegra habría pospuesto la ceremonia.
haber
to have (auxiliary)
la ceremonia
the ceremony
posponer
to postpone
la suegra
the mother-in-law
Questions & Answers about La suegra habría pospuesto la ceremonia.
Why do we use habría here instead of había or hubiera?
Habría is the conditional form of the auxiliary verb haber. Combined with a past participle (here, pospuesto), it forms the Perfect Conditional (Condicional Compuesto). It translates to "would have", used for hypothetical actions in the past. Había means "had" (Past Perfect), and hubiera is the past subjunctive.
Why is the past participle pospuesto and not "posponido"?
Posponer (to postpone) is built on the root verb poner (to put). Because the past participle of poner is highly irregular (puesto), any verb ending in -poner follows the exact same pattern. That is why it becomes pospuesto.
Is it acceptable to spell this word as postpuesto with a "t"?
You might occasionally see it spelled postpuesto, but the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prefers the simplified spelling pospuesto (and the infinitive posponer). Dropping the "t" is the standard convention in modern Spanish.
Could I insert an adverb in the middle of the verb, like "habría quizás pospuesto"?
No, in Spanish compound tenses, you can never separate the auxiliary verb (habría) and the past participle (pospuesto). Any adverbs must go before the conjugated auxiliary verb or after the past participle.
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