Breakdown of Dovresti vedere la collezione che è stata rubata dalla galleria!
essere
to be
vedere
to see
da
from, at (someone's place) / by (oneself), on one's own
dovere
must
la
her/it (direct object)
rubare
to steal
che
who, that (relative pronoun)
la galleria
gallery
la collezione
collection
Questions & Answers about Dovresti vedere la collezione che è stata rubata dalla galleria!
How does è stata rubata form the passive voice here?
This is the passive voice in a compound tense, specifically the passato prossimo. To form it, Italian uses the auxiliary verb essere (to be) in the passato prossimo—which is è stato—followed by the past participle of the main verb, rubare (to steal). Together, they translate to "was stolen" or "has been stolen".
Why do both stata and rubata end in -a?
In the passive voice, the past participles must agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Since the subject receiving the action is la collezione (a feminine singular noun), both the auxiliary participle (stata) and the main participle (rubata) take the feminine singular -a ending.
In a passive sentence, doesn't dalla usually mean "by the"?
Yes, the preposition da (combined here with la to make dalla) is frequently used to introduce the "agent" in passive sentences (meaning "by"). However, da is also the standard preposition for "from". Context tells us the gallery didn't commit the crime; rather, the collection was taken from the gallery.
Why use dovresti instead of the regular present tense devi?
Dovresti is the conditional tense of dovere (to have to / must). While the present tense devi means a strict "you must", using the conditional softens the meaning to "you should". It is the most natural way to offer a recommendation or enthusiastic advice in Italian.
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