How do you say “we shouldn’t have” in Spanish?

secreto y culpa tras una infidelidad con el esposo

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B1 Spanish listening practice · Mexican Spanish · Picked for people who know some

💡 Did you know?
no debimos
Spanish grammar pattern for regret
“we shouldn’t have” — deber in the past tense plus an infinitive, used to express regret

Deber normally means “to have to” or “should,” but put it in the past tense and pair it with an infinitive, and no debimos means “we shouldn’t have [done that]” — a compact way to express regret about something already done. In this telenovela-style scene, one character says exactly that after an affair: no debimos, “we shouldn’t have,” immediately followed by a partner brushing the guilt aside instead.

The pattern is flexible: no debiste decir eso (“you shouldn’t have said that”), no debí confiar en él (“I shouldn’t have trusted him”) — just deber conjugated in the past plus any infinitive. It’s one of the cleanest, most reusable ways to express hindsight and regret in Spanish, useful well beyond dramatic scenes like this one.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this B1 Spanish listening practice video?

93.1%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Spanish words
Most of the words in this video are common Spanish words.

How common in written Spanish

84.5%
Top 1,000
93.1%
Top 2,000
98.3%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Spanish

96.4%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Spanish.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.

debimos
1×
Not in top 5,000
we should have
descubrirlo
1×
Not in top 5,000
to discover it
remordimientos
1×
Not in top 5,000
remorse
nada de culpas ni remordimientos
1×
no blame or regrets allowed

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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