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Per fortuna non ho dovuto pagare.

Per fortuna non ho dovuto pagare.
Luckily I did not have to pay.
From Lesson 102:Past tense of modal verbs·Italian

Breakdown of Per fortuna non ho dovuto pagare.

pagare
to pay
dovere
must
per fortuna
luckily, fortunately

Questions & Answers about Per fortuna non ho dovuto pagare.

Why do we use ho (avere) instead of sono (essere) with dovuto here?
In the passato prossimo, modal verbs like dovere (to have to) usually borrow the auxiliary verb of the action verb that follows them. Since pagare (to pay) uses avere (as in ho pagato), the modal verb also takes avere, making it ho dovuto pagare.
Why does dovuto end in -o? If a woman is speaking, would it be dovuta?
No, it stays dovuto. When a modal verb uses avere as its auxiliary, its past participle does not change to match the gender or number of the speaker. It would only change to dovuta if the auxiliary were essere.
Where exactly does the non go in sentences with a modal verb in the past tense?
The negative word non always goes immediately before the conjugated auxiliary verb. In this sentence, it sits right in front of ho, creating non ho dovuto pagare.
Could I say fortunatamente instead of per fortuna?
Yes! Both mean "luckily" or "fortunately" and can be used interchangeably. Per fortuna (literally "by luck") is very common in everyday spoken Italian.

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