Are the 3 options truly interchangeable?

Question

What am I missing? The lesson says that all three options are interchangeable, but the test result says that I got it almost correct when I chose "podía haber reducido" instead of "podría haber reducido."

Inma Sánchez · Answer

Hola CoraThe system is telling you it is "nearly" correct instead of "100% correct" because in multiple answer questions, the student needs to identify all the possible correct answers, not only some of them, to get it all correct.SaludosInma

lorox loro · Answer

I'm sorry Cora but I have to disagree with kwiziq about: podrías, podías and pudiste haber perdido tu trabajo" being interchangeable. The last two, (podías and pudiste) are the only interchangeable verbs. Both sentences mean you could have lost your job...but you didn't!!!

The only correct answer to the test question is "podrías" because using it allows for the possibility that you may have, in fact, lost your job....but it's still unknown at the present time whether you did or not.

Using podías and pudiste clarifies that your didn't lose your job whereas podrías leaves both possibilities open

lorox loro · Answer

Using "podrías" would make the correct English translation be "you may have lost your job" instead of "you could have lost your job."

lorox loro · Answer

Using "podrías" would make the correct English translation be "you may have lost your job" instead of "you could have lost your job."