Breakdown of L'astuccio è vuoto. Dovranno comprare le matite.
essere
to be
la matita
the pencil
vuoto
empty
comprare
to buy
dovere
must
l'astuccio
the case / the pencil case
Questions & Answers about L'astuccio è vuoto. Dovranno comprare le matite.
Why is dovranno in the future tense if the English translation is "must need to" (which is present tense)?
This is the epistemic future! In Italian, you can use the future tense to make a guess, an assumption, or express a strong probability about something happening right now. While dovranno literally means "they will have to," in this context it means "they probably have to" or "they must need to."
Could I just say devono comprare (they have to buy) in the present tense instead?
Yes, but it changes the mood of the sentence. Devono comprare le matite is a stated fact: "They have to buy pencils." By using the future tense dovranno, the speaker is showing that they are making a deduction based on a clue (the empty pencil case).
Is astuccio exclusively used for school pencil cases?
Why is there an article before matite (le matite)? In English we just say "buy pencils."
Italian uses definite articles (like il, la, i, le) much more often than English, especially when referring to a class of objects as a whole. While comprare matite (without the article) isn't strictly wrong, Italian prefers comprare le matite to talk about getting the pencils that are supposed to go inside that empty case.
Learn L'astuccio è vuoto. Dovranno comprare le matite and more in Italian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free