Breakdown of Dovrai superare un grande ostacolo.
un
a / an (masculine)
grande
big
dovere
must
superare
to overcome
Questions & Answers about Dovrai superare un grande ostacolo.
Why is the future tense of dovere spelled dovrai instead of doverai?
Dovrai is the tu (you) form in the future tense. Dovere is an irregular verb in the future: it drops the e from its stem. So, instead of the regular dover-, the stem becomes dovr-. You then add the standard future ending -ai to get dovrai.
Why isn't the verb superare conjugated?
Because it follows dovrai, which is a modal (or helper) verb. Just like in English, when you use a conjugated modal verb like dovere (to have to / must), the action verb that comes right after it stays in its infinitive (dictionary) form.
Why does the adjective grande come before ostacolo? Don't adjectives usually go after the noun?
While most descriptive adjectives in Italian go after the noun, common adjectives describing size or scale (like grande and piccolo) often go before it. Placing grande before the noun here also gives it a slightly more figurative meaning, emphasizing the importance or difficulty of this obstacle rather than just its literal physical size.
Since ostacolo starts with a vowel, why don't we write un' ostacolo with an apostrophe?