Debemos respetar la ley.

Debemos is the 1st person plural present tense of deber.

In this sentence, deber + infinitive means to have to / must / should depending on context.

So:

• debo = I must / I should
• debes = you must / you should
• debe = he/she/it must; you must (formal)
• debemos = we must / we should
• debéis = you all must / should (Spain)
• deben = they must; you all must

In Debemos respetar la ley, debemos expresses obligation: we must / should.

Because after deber, Spanish normally uses an infinitive.

The structure is:

deber + infinitive

So:

• Debemos respetar = we must respect
• not Debemos respetamos

This is similar to English:

• We must respect
• not We must we respect

Other examples:

• Debo estudiar = I must study
• Debemos salir = We must leave
• Deben esperar = They must wait

In Spanish, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Here, debemos clearly means we.

So both are possible:

• Debemos respetar la ley.
• Nosotros debemos respetar la ley.

The version without nosotros is more natural in many contexts.

You would add nosotros only if you want emphasis, contrast, or clarity, for example:

• Nosotros debemos respetar la ley, pero ellos no quieren.
  We must respect the law, but they do not want to.

Spanish often uses the definite article where English may or may not use it.

Here, la ley means the law, but it can also refer to law in general as an institution or principle.

So:

• respetar la ley = to respect the law

Using la sounds natural and standard.

If you said just respetar ley, that would be ungrammatical in normal Spanish.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• respetar la ley = respect the law / law in general
• respetar las leyes = respect the laws / specific laws or laws as individual rules

Both are correct, but la ley is a very common general expression.

Deber can have several meanings, so context matters.

1. Obligation

deber + infinitive
= must / should / ought to

• Debemos respetar la ley. = We must / should respect the law.

2. Owe

deber + noun/amount = to owe

• Te debo diez euros. = I owe you ten euros.

3. Probability

Sometimes deber de + infinitive can express probability, especially in traditional grammar:

• Debe de estar en casa. = He/She is probably at home.

But in your sentence, debemos respetar la ley clearly means obligation.

Both can mean we have to / must respect the law, and in many contexts they are very similar.

Debemos respetar la ley

• can sound a little more formal, moral, or principle-based
• often feels like we should / we ought to / we must

Tenemos que respetar la ley

• often sounds a bit more direct and practical
• strongly conveys we have to

In real life, both are common and correct.

Very roughly:

• Debemos = we should / must
• Tenemos que = we have to / must

But there is plenty of overlap.

It is neutral and perfectly standard.

It could appear in:

• conversation
• a classroom
• a speech
• a textbook
• a legal or civic context

Because it talks about the law, it may sound a little serious, but grammatically it is not especially formal or informal.

Yes, Spanish word order is more flexible than English, but the normal order here is:

Debemos respetar la ley.

That is the most natural neutral version.

Other orders are possible, but they usually add emphasis or sound more literary:

• La ley debemos respetar.
  This is understandable, but marked and less natural in ordinary speech.

• Debemos la ley respetar.
  This sounds very unnatural in modern everyday Spanish.

So for learners, the best pattern is:

[conjugated verb] + [infinitive] + [object]

Because la ley is a thing, not a person.

Spanish uses the personal a mainly before a specific human direct object.

Compare:

• Respetamos la ley. = We respect the law.
• Respetamos a nuestro profesor. = We respect our teacher.

So in your sentence, no a is needed.

A simple pronunciation guide:

• Debemos ≈ deh-BEH-mos
• respetar ≈ res-peh-TAR
• la ≈ lah
• ley ≈ ley (rhymes roughly with English they, but shorter and cleaner)

A more accurate approximation in IPA:

/deˈβemos respeˈtaɾ la ˈlei/

A few useful notes:

• The b in debemos is often a soft sound, not a strong English b.
• The r in respetar is a light tap, not an English r.
• y in ley sounds like the vowel sound in hey, but shorter.

Yes. Without more context, debemos can often be translated as either we must or we should.

• We must respect the law sounds stronger.
• We should respect the law sounds slightly softer.

Spanish deber often covers both ideas, and the exact force depends on context, tone, and situation.

If this is a moral statement or civic rule, must is often a good translation.
If it is advice or principle, should may also fit.

You place no before the conjugated verb:

No debemos respetar la ley.

Grammatically, that means:

• We must not respect the law or
• We should not respect the law

That sentence is grammatically correct, though obviously unusual in meaning.

This word order is very important:

• Debemos respetar la ley. = We must respect the law.
• No debemos respetar la ley. = We must not / should not respect the law.

You can simply use question marks and intonation:

¿Debemos respetar la ley?

This means:

• Must we respect the law?
• Should we respect the law?

In Spanish, unlike English, you do not need to add a helper verb like do.

So:

• statement: Debemos respetar la ley.
• question: ¿Debemos respetar la ley?

The word order can stay the same.

Yes, very often it is.

Respetar can mean:

• to respect a person
• to respect a rule
• to respect the law
• to observe or comply with something

Examples:

• Respetamos a nuestros padres. = We respect our parents.
• Hay que respetar las normas. = We have to respect the rules.
• Debemos respetar la ley. = We must respect the law.

So in this sentence, respetar la ley means both to respect and, in practice, to obey / comply with the law.