"Eu não teria podido pagar por aquele apartamento."

Translation: I would not have been able to pay for that apartment.

[JairoGrijalva]

"
I could not have payed for that apartment.." as a valid response. "payed" is not a word

[ErikZelmer]

reported! It's "paid" and not "payed"....... broken ass DL english!

[Libor]

would anyone help me distinguish this from ''I could not have paid ....''

[Paulenrique]

i would not have been able to pay= eu não teria podido pagar / I could not have paid = eu não poderia ter pagado.

[Jandreslami]

Off topic, but what's up with pagar participle, when to use "pago" or "pagado"?

[Paulenrique]

both! with ser/estar use pago, with ter and haver use pagado!

[Libor]

Well of course I see the grammatical way of assigning, yet is there a difference in the meaning?

[Paulenrique]

sure 1- one would never be able to pay something 2- the person regrets the fact of paying for something.

[Libor]

Thanks a mil. This regretting meaning of ''could not have done st'' .. missed me. (I assume you meant ''not being able to pay'' not ''paying for something in 2-)

[RafaelFial4]

Just for the record "eu nao teria CONSEGUIDO pagar por aquele apartamento" is much more likely to hear someone saying for the same meaning (not been able to pay); and "eu nao deveria ter pagado o apartamento" for meanings like "should not have paid"

[Robleh100]

if we drop 'teria', then we have eu nao podido pagar por aquele apartamento. This would be rendered as 'I couldn't have paid for that apartment.' Since 'poder', the verb, is similar to 'conseguir', in that it means 'to be able to', at least in this sentence it does. The question is why have the much more complicated construction? I guess it's practice for us with complex sentences.