Breakdown of Dobbiamo sempre riconoscere il merito altrui.
sempre
always
dovere
must
riconoscere
to recognize
altrui
of others / other people's
il merito
the credit / the merit (recognition)
Questions & Answers about Dobbiamo sempre riconoscere il merito altrui.
Why doesn't altrui agree in gender and number with merito, and why is it placed after the noun?
altrui is a special indefinite possessive adjective meaning "other people's". Unlike standard possessives like mio or suo, it is invariable, meaning its ending never changes to match the noun. It also strictly follows the noun it modifies, rather than preceding it.
Why isn't there a preposition like di (of) before altrui to translate "of others"?
Because altrui is already a possessive adjective that inherently means "belonging to others". You don't need di to show possession because that meaning is built directly into the word itself.
Could I say il merito degli altri instead of il merito altrui?
Why does sempre go between the two verbs rather than at the end of the sentence?
In Italian, adverbs of time or frequency like sempre usually go immediately after the conjugated verb. When you have a conjugated modal verb (dobbiamo) and an infinitive (riconoscere), the adverb naturally sits right between them.
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