Per pulire il tavolo, devo strofinare bene la macchia.

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Breakdown of Per pulire il tavolo, devo strofinare bene la macchia.

• il tavolo: the table
• bene: well
• dovere: to have to

Questions & Answers about Per pulire il tavolo, devo strofinare bene la macchia.

Why does per pulire mean to clean here?

In this sentence, per + infinitive expresses purpose.

So:

• per pulire = to clean / in order to clean
• Per pulire il tavolo = To clean the table

Literally, per often means for, but with an infinitive it very often means in order to.

Examples:

• Per capire, devo leggere lentamente. = To understand, I have to read slowly.
• Per arrivare in tempo, dobbiamo partire adesso. = To arrive on time, we have to leave now.

Why are pulire and strofinare in the infinitive instead of being conjugated?

Because each one depends on another structure:

• per pulire: after per to show purpose, Italian uses the infinitive
• devo strofinare: after dovere (must / have to), the next verb also stays in the infinitive

So the only conjugated verb here is:

• devo = I have to

And the action verbs stay unconjugated:

• pulire = to clean
• strofinare = to rub / scrub

This is very similar to English:

• I have to rub
• not I have to rubs

What exactly does devo mean?