Dobbiamo evitare questa azione.

this

Breakdown of Dobbiamo evitare questa azione.

• dovere: to have to
• evitare: to avoid
• l'azione: the action

Questions & Answers about Dobbiamo evitare questa azione.

Why is dobbiamo used here, and what verb does it come from?

Dobbiamo comes from the verb dovere, which usually means must, have to, or to be supposed to.

It is the 1st person plural form in the present tense, so dobbiamo means we must or we have to.

A quick mini-conjugation of dovere in the present:

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

So:

• Dobbiamo evitare questa azione. = We must avoid this action.

Why is evitare in the infinitive?

Because after a modal verb like dovere, Italian normally uses the infinitive of the main verb.

So the structure is:

• dovere + infinitive
• dobbiamo evitare = we must avoid

This works like:

• possiamo andare = we can go
• voglio mangiare = I want to eat
• devi studiare = you must study

So evitare stays in the infinitive because dobbiamo is already the conjugated verb.

Why isn’t there a word for we in the sentence?