podría haberlo hecho

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, René Uittenbogaard <ruittenb@...>
wrote:
>
> During my Spanish lesson, my spanish teacher explained to me that
> instead of the spanish sentence:
>
> Habría podido hacerlo
> Ik zou het hebben kunnen(*) doen
> I would have been able to do it
>
> he would normally say:
>
> Podría haberlo hecho
> Ik zou het kunnen hebben gedaan
> I would be able to have done it (?)
>
> but even though we recognized the grammatical difference, we were
> not able to distill the difference in meaning.
>
> Is there any? If so, what is it?
> Are the english translations accurate enough?
> Is there a difference in usage of both spanish sentences?
The second sounds wrong to me. Why would I speak of my present
ability to perform an action in the past? It seems to me that
the "pastness" is in the ability and not in the doing.

I think many today would say, "I used to be able to do it."

Charlie