Writing Exercise 9 — the modal verb dovere = to have to; must; ought to; should

N.B. The Conditional Mood of this verb translates the English "should" or "ought to"; the past conditional translates "should have" or "ought to have"

Translate into Italian:

1. I must go now; I'm in a hurry.

2. Must you go so soon?

3. Why do you always have to contradict me?

4. We must all try to help him.

5. I don't know what we ought to do. (N.B. ought = conditional mood.)

6. My parents ought to let me go on holiday with my friends, now that I'm grown up.

7. I ought to have written but I didn't have any time. (N.B. ought to have = past conditional mood.)

8. He shouldn't have done it; it's not fair.

9. They should have arrived by now; I don't understand what has happened.

10. This letter arrived; I should have given you it before.

11. How should I have written it?

12. I had to tell the truth; you should have gone to school.

13. If I had to (N.B. Imperfect subjunctive) change my plans, I would be bery angry.

14. I would have been very angry if they had decided to leave me at home.

15. Although they sometimes had to repeat a few words, I usually understood what they were saying.

For a translation of thesentences, click here.