Learn Italian: Il dazio va pagato anche se esibisce la fattura. - The duty must be paid even if you show the invoice.

Il dazio va pagato anche se esibisce la fattura.

The duty must be paid even if you show the invoice.

Breakdown of Il dazio va pagato anche se esibisce la fattura.

must be (+ past participle)

Questions & Answers about Il dazio va pagato anche se esibisce la fattura.

Why use va pagato instead of deve essere pagato?

This uses andare with a past participle to form a passive of obligation. It means exactly the same as deve essere pagato (must be paid) but is very common in Italian for rules, instructions, and official contexts.

Does the ending of pagato change depending on the subject?

Yes! Because this is a passive construction, the past participle acts like an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the subject (il dazio). If the subject were feminine plural, like le tasse (the taxes), it would be vanno pagate.

The translation says 'even if you show', but isn't esibisce the 'he/she' form?

Yes, esibisce is the third-person singular form of esibire (to show or exhibit). In this sentence, it is used as the formal 'you' (Lei), which perfectly fits the context of an official speaking to a traveler or customer.

Why doesn't anche se (even if) trigger the subjunctive mood here?

The conjunction anche se only takes the subjunctive when describing an impossible or highly unlikely hypothetical scenario. Because showing an invoice is a real, realistic possibility in this context, it is followed by the normal indicative mood (esibisce).