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Dudo que él haya cotilleado sobre nosotros.

Dudo que él haya cotilleado sobre nosotros.
I doubt he has gossiped about us.
From Lesson 481:Exclamatory amounts (¡lo que...!)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Dudo que él haya cotilleado sobre nosotros.

Why is the subjunctive (haya cotilleado) used here instead of the indicative (ha cotilleado)?
The verb dudar (to doubt) expresses uncertainty. When the main clause introduces doubt or denial with a phrase like dudo que, it triggers the subjunctive mood in the subordinate clause. We use the present perfect subjunctive (haya cotilleado) because the gossiping happened in the past but is still relevant to the present.
Could I use the imperfect subjunctive (cotilleara / cotillease) instead of haya cotilleado?
You could, but it shifts the timeframe. Haya cotilleado translates to "has gossiped," tying the past action to the present moment. If you used cotilleara or cotillease (gossiped), it would place the action firmly in a finished past, feeling less immediate.
Why is the subject pronoun él explicitly included in this sentence?
In all subjunctive tenses, the first-person (yo) and third-person singular (él / ella / usted) forms are completely identical. Here, both would be haya cotilleado. Including él removes any ambiguity so it is clear you doubt "he" gossiped, rather than "I" or "you" (formal).
Can I use the preposition de instead of sobre after cotillear?
Yes, absolutely. In Spain, both cotillear sobre nosotros and cotillear de nosotros are widely used to mean "to gossip about us." They are perfectly natural and interchangeable in this context.

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