N-ar trebui să deschizi mesajul fără să verifici cine l-a trimis.

not

Breakdown of N-ar trebui să deschizi mesajul fără să verifici cine l-a trimis.

• cine: who
• a deschide: to open
• îl: it

Questions & Answers about N-ar trebui să deschizi mesajul fără să verifici cine l-a trimis.

What does N-ar trebui mean, and why is it written with a hyphen?

N-ar trebui is the contracted form of Nu ar trebui and means should not.

• nu = not
• ar trebui = should / would have to / ought to

The hyphen shows that nu has been shortened to n- before ar. This contraction is very common in Romanian, especially in everyday writing and speech.

So:

• Nu ar trebui să deschizi...
• N-ar trebui să deschizi...

mean the same thing.

Why does Romanian use ar trebui for should?

Romanian often expresses should / ought to with ar trebui.

Literally, a trebui means something like to be necessary / to have to, and ar trebui is the conditional form. In practice, though, it is the normal way to say should in many situations.

Examples:

• Ar trebui să pleci. = You should leave.
• N-ar trebui să faci asta. = You shouldn’t do that.

So even though it may look more like would have to word-for-word, the natural English translation is often simply should.

Why is there a să after ar trebui?