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5 August

English (US)

Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Spain)

Question about Spanish (Mexico)

How do you say this in Spanish (Mexico)? Woulda, coulda, shoulda (expresión cuando alguien pone excusas)

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Nomadires

5 August

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Spanish (Mexico)

Also possible:
¡Cuéntaselo a quien te crea!
¡Ay, sí!¡Y yo me chupo el dedo!
¡Sí como no! (This one depends a lot on intonation to reflect incredulity!

All of these are used to express incredulity, not buying it. So, they are not limited to just discredit excuses, but can be employed after hearing an obvious excuse told by someone known by making excuses.

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Nomadires

5 August

Spanish (Mexico)

For starters, woulda, coulda and shoulda are slang forms of "would have", "could have" or "should have" (I've seen some use would/could/should of instead, but it is still slang and allegedly incorrect). Secondly, there's no direct translation to any modal verbs, for Spanish doesn't have such a feature. The closest thing is to use either copretérito simple or compuesto to have a similar idea. It is also possible to use the past subjunctive in such cases:
I woulda gone if she told me. = Habría ido si ella me hubiera dicho. (Habría is copretérito compuesto. Some may use "Hubiera ido" instead, which is past subjunctive. Even then, some might use present subjunctive instead "Haya ido", which is not very correct, and a common mistake among Spanish natives is to replace the present subjunctive "haya" with the incorrect form "haiga" (Haiga ido si me haiga dicho). I guess this last one would be the closest to the original in English when regarding the incorrect usage of the language, but using "haiga" is regarded as being uncultured and/or uneducated.)

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InsertANameHere

5 August

English (US)

@Nomadires Gotcha, thanks! Using "of" instead of "have" isn't slang, but a mistake - it's a misrepresentation of the pronunciation of the contraction of "have", which is "'ve" (e.g. would've). By contrast, "woulda", like "gonna", is a syncope, and the altered spelling is meant to represent a different pronunciation in speech than the typical word.

For clarity, "woulda coulda shoulda" (all three words together, in any order) is an expression. It's used to dismiss something as just being an excuse, especially when talking to someone who has a habit of making excuses. I was wondering if Spanish had a similar expression to refer to excuses.

Regardless, the answer was really interesting. I know of the frequent mistakes native English speakers make, and I've always been curious what mistakes native Spanish speakers frequently make.

Nomadires

5 August

Spanish (Mexico)

@InsertANameHere Oh, ok! I didn't know about that idiom.
Then, to call out someone on their bs, you may simply say "Pretextos, pretextos", "Pretextos quiere el diablo" or "Desde que se inventaron las excusas, se acabaron los pretextos" to the same end.

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Nomadires

5 August

Spanish (Mexico)

Also possible:
¡Cuéntaselo a quien te crea!
¡Ay, sí!¡Y yo me chupo el dedo!
¡Sí como no! (This one depends a lot on intonation to reflect incredulity!

All of these are used to express incredulity, not buying it. So, they are not limited to just discredit excuses, but can be employed after hearing an obvious excuse told by someone known by making excuses.

See a translation

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InsertANameHere

5 August

English (US)

@Nomadires Thanks a lot, bro! I really appreciate all of the translations and the explanations!

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dani092013

6 August

Spanish (Mexico)

Something i say is "el hubiera no existe"

in case some just couldn't do something.

But if it's like a complain I use " si como no" for example

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InsertANameHere

6 August

English (US)

@dani092013 Thanks for the answer, I appreciate it!

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Nomadires

6 August

Spanish (Mexico)

"El hubiera no existe" might work, but it is more to express a regret. It comes from the fact that third conditional sentences use the auxiliary "haber" conjugated to past subjunctive (Si hubiera sabido, habría ido.)

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InsertANameHere

6 August

English (US)

@Nomadires I appreciate the clarification, thank you!

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How do you say this in Spanish (Mexico)? Woulda, coulda, shoulda (expresión cuando alguien pone excusas)

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How do you say this in Spanish (Mexico)? Woulda, coulda, shoulda (expresión cuando alguien pone excusas) See a translation

@InsertANameHere Oh, ok! I didn't know about that idiom.Then, to call out someone on their bs, you may simply say "Pretextos, pretextos", "Pretextos quiere el diablo" or "Desde que se inventaron las excusas, se acabaron los pretextos" to the same end.

Something i say is "el hubiera no existe" in case some just couldn't do something.But if it's like a complain I use " si como no" for example

"El hubiera no existe" might work, but it is more to express a regret. It comes from the fact that third conditional sentences use the auxiliary "haber" conjugated to past subjunctive (Si hubiera sabido, habría ido.)

How do you say this in Spanish (Mexico)? Woulda, coulda, shoulda (expresión cuando alguien pone excusas)

See a translation

@InsertANameHere Oh, ok! I didn't know about that idiom.
Then, to call out someone on their bs, you may simply say "Pretextos, pretextos", "Pretextos quiere el diablo" or "Desde que se inventaron las excusas, se acabaron los pretextos" to the same end.

Something i say is "el hubiera no existe"

in case some just couldn't do something.

But if it's like a complain I use " si como no" for example