Word
Vous devriez vous impliquer dans la vie municipale.
Meaning
You should get involved in municipal life.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Vous devriez vous impliquer dans la vie municipale.
vous
you (plural/formal)
dans
in, inside
la vie
the life
devoir
to have to / must
Questions & Answers about Vous devriez vous impliquer dans la vie municipale.
The current lesson is about using il faut que with the subjunctive. Could I use that here instead of vous devriez?
Yes, but it changes the tone. Vous devriez is the conditional form of devoir, meaning 'you should', which sounds like advice. If you use Il faut que vous vous impliquiez, it means 'It is necessary that you get involved' (or 'You must get involved'). Notice that il faut que triggers the subjunctive form impliquiez, whereas devriez is simply followed by the infinitive vous impliquer.
Why is there a second vous right before impliquer?
The French verb for 'to get involved' is reflexive: s'impliquer. Even though the verb is in its infinitive form here because it follows devriez, its reflexive pronoun still has to match the subject of the sentence. Since the subject is vous, the pronoun changes to vous, resulting in vous impliquer.
What tense is devriez and how does it change the meaning of devoir?
Devriez is the conditional tense of devoir (to have to / must). While the present tense vous devez means 'you must', using the conditional softens it to 'you should' or 'you ought to'. This is the standard way to give advice in French.
Why do we use the preposition dans instead of à before ?