Dobbiamo accettare la realtà.

to have to

Breakdown of Dobbiamo accettare la realtà.

• accettare: to accept
• la realtà: the reality

Questions & Answers about Dobbiamo accettare la realtà.

What does dobbiamo mean grammatically?

Dobbiamo is the present tense, first-person plural form of dovere, which means to have to / must.

So:

• io devo = I must / I have to
• tu devi = you must
• lui/lei deve = he/she must
• noi dobbiamo = we must / we have to
• voi dovete = you all must
• loro devono = they must

In this sentence, dobbiamo tells you that the subject is we, even though noi is not stated.

Why isn’t noi included?

In Italian, subject pronouns are often left out because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

• Dobbiamo already means we must
• So noi dobbiamo is possible, but usually unnecessary

You would include noi only for emphasis or contrast, for example:

• Noi dobbiamo accettare la realtà, non loro.
  We have to accept reality, not them.

Why is accettare in the infinitive?