La muratura deve essere rinforzata.

The masonry must be reinforced.

Breakdown of La muratura deve essere rinforzata.

• essere: to be
• dovere: to have to
• la muratura: the masonry
• rinforzare: to reinforce

Questions & Answers about La muratura deve essere rinforzata.

Why is muratura feminine, and why does it take la?

Because muratura is a feminine singular noun in Italian, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la.

This is just a property of the noun itself; grammatical gender in Italian does not always match anything logical in English. You simply learn la muratura as the normal form.

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Why is the verb deve singular?

Because the subject is la muratura, which is grammatically singular.

So the verb dovere must also be singular:

• la muratura deve = the masonry must
• le murature devono = the masonry structures / the walls must

Even if muratura refers to a large structure, it is still grammatically singular here.

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Why do we use deve essere rinforzata instead of just deve rinforzare?

Because this sentence is in the passive voice.

• deve rinforzare = must reinforce
  This would need an agent, someone or something doing the reinforcing.
• deve essere rinforzata = must be reinforced
  This focuses on what needs to happen to the masonry, not on who does it.

So the structure is:

• deve = must
• essere = be
• rinforzata = reinforced

This is the normal way to form a passive construction with a modal verb in Italian.

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Why is it and not ?