Breakdown of L'esame è difficile, devono studiare.
essere
to be
difficile
difficult
studiare
to study
dovere
must
Questions & Answers about L'esame è difficile, devono studiare.
Why is there no word for 'to' between devono and studiare?
In English, we say 'have to study', but in Italian, the modal verb dovere (to have to / must) connects directly to the infinitive form of the next verb. Studiare already means 'to study', so you don't need any extra words in between!
Where is the word for 'they' in the second part of the sentence?
Esame is a masculine word, so why does difficile end in an -e instead of an -o?
Not all masculine adjectives end in -o. Difficile belongs to a group of adjectives that end in -e for both masculine and feminine singular nouns. If we were talking about multiple exams, the ending would change to an -i: Gli esami sono difficili.