Word
Vous devriez respecter cette coutume ici.
Meaning
You should respect this custom here.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vous devriez respecter cette coutume ici.
ici
here
vous
you (plural/formal)
ce
this (before a noun)
devoir
to have to / must
Questions & Answers about Vous devriez respecter cette coutume ici.
Why does the sentence use devriez instead of devez?
The verb devoir in the present tense (vous devez) translates to "you must" or "you have to", which is a strict obligation. By putting it in the conditional tense (vous devriez), it softens the meaning to "you should". This is the standard, polite way to give advice in French!
Could I use tu devrais instead of vous devriez here?
Yes, if you are speaking informally to one person (like a friend or a family member), you would say tu devrais. Vous devriez is used when addressing multiple people at once, or when speaking formally to one person out of respect.
Why does respecter keep its -er ending here?
When you have two verbs right next to each other in a sentence, the rule is to conjugate the first one and leave the second one in the infinitive (its original dictionary form). Since devriez is already conjugated to match vous, respecter stays in the infinitive.
Why is it cette coutume and not ce coutume?
Coutume (which means "custom" or "tradition") is a feminine noun. Because of this, you have to use the feminine demonstrative adjective for "this", which is cette, rather than the masculine ce.