Keep the perfect helper
The perfect ist angekommen becomes hypothetical wäre angekommen; hat angerufen becomes hätte angerufen. The participle remains unchanged. The auxiliary still agrees with the subject, as in wir hätten or wir wären.
Wenn Nora früher angekommen wäre, hätte sie den Anfang gehört.
If Nora had arrived earlier, she would have heard the beginning.
Separate a report from an unreal alternative
In an ordinary factual account, Nora hat angerufen reports a call. In an unreal-past context, Nora hätte angerufen describes an imagined call. Read the context before deciding what happened: hypothetical forms also have uses outside regret and counterfactual conditions.
Nora hätte angerufen, wenn sie die Nummer gehabt hätte.
Nora would have called if she had had the number.
A past decision can have a result now
The condition and result do not have to refer to the same time. Use an unreal past condition for a decision not taken, but a present hypothetical for the situation you imagine now. Time words help make that contrast clear.
Wenn Nora den früheren Zug genommen hätte, wäre sie jetzt hier.
If Nora had taken the earlier train, she would be here now.
Practise this pattern
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References
Original explanations and examples informed by grammar references. Level placement is an editorial teaching choice.