The Italian verb dovere is so much easier than the English equivalents of:
have to, ought to, should, must, supposed to, meant to.
And it gets even easier in conversation when you can use various tenses of andare as a short cut instead of messy compound constructions, as set out below.
Present, Conditional and Future Tenses to express an obligation:
I must/have to = Devo
I should/ought to = Dovrei
I will have to = Dovrò
Past Tenses to express probability or an obligation either consummated or unconsummated:
Probability
By now they ought to/should/must have arrived = Ormai dovrebbero essere arrivati
(In a separate article we will cover the alternative use of the future tense of avere and essere to express supposition or likelihood as used in the sentence above)
Obligation
At what time were you supposed/meant to arrive? = A che ora dovevi arrivare?
(Using imperfetto means that you probably didn't)
At what time did you have to arrive? = A che ora sei dovuto arrivare?
(Using passato prossimo means that you did in fact arrive)
How Italians use 'andare' as a shortcut in conversation
The English language only has the long cumbersome form of stating what ought to/should/must be done now or in the future or in the past and you can also use the long version in Italian as follows using dovere + essere + past participle:
It must/has to be done now = Deve essere fatto adesso
It ought to/should be done later = Dovrebbe essere fatto più tardi
It must be done/will have to be done tomorrow = Dovrà essere fatto domani
It ought to/should have been done yesterday = Avrebbe dovuto essere fatto ieri
This is much too long for Italians in conversation so they substitute the appropriate tenses of andare to replace dovere + essere and also to get rid of compound structures of dovere.
The English translation remains the same but the Italian construction changes as follows:
It must/has to be done now = Va fatto adesso
It ought to/should be done later = Andrebbe fatto più tardi
It must be done/will have to be done tomorrow = Andrà fatto domani
It ought to/should have been done yesterday = Andava fatto ieri
Another use of the verb dovere
In a bar perhaps after you've had your coffee and cornetto you could ask:
How much do I owe you? = Quanto Le devo?
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