Reply to Alex's question

NicoleB1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

I was wondering if there was a reply to his question below:

"didn't need to (infinitive) & needn't have (past participle) are used to express the lack of necessity in the past, ..."

Asked 2 years ago

InmaKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hola Nicole

I am copying here what I replied to Alex (the answer was on a different thread):

For the first one "I didn't need to have an interview" we would say:

Yo no necesitaba hacer la entrevista.

It is very straight forward in this case.

However, for the second one "I needn't have cooked dinner" we would either say:

Al final, no hacía falta hacer la cena.

Podía/Podría haberme ahorrado hacer la cena.

This way you get the meaning of something you did but it wasn't necessary in the end.

I hope this helps.

Inma

Like02 years ago

NicoleB1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Muchas gracias Inma.

Like02 years ago

I was wondering if there was a reply to his question below:

"didn't need to (infinitive) & needn't have (past participle) are used to express the lack of necessity in the past, ..."

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