Breakdown of Ar fi trebuit să vedem OZN-ul pe radarul nostru.
fi
to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)
avea
to have
vedea
to see
pe
on
să
to (subjunctive marker)
trebui
to have to / to be needed (with a dative: to need)
nostru
our [noastră, noștri, noastre]
OZN-ul
the UFO
radarul
the radar
Questions & Answers about Ar fi trebuit să vedem OZN-ul pe radarul nostru.
How does ar fi trebuit să vedem express unfulfilled past obligation?
Romanian forms unfulfilled past obligations by using the perfect conditional of a trebui (ar fi trebuit, meaning it would have been necessary) followed by the present subjunctive of the action verb (să vedem, that we see). Literally, it translates to it would have been necessary that we see.
Why is the auxiliary verb ar used instead of am if the subject is we?
When followed by a subjunctive verb, a trebui acts as an impersonal verb. Because it is the grammatical subject of the first part (it would have been necessary), it uses the third-person singular auxiliary ar. Only the subjunctive verb să vedem conjugates for the actual doers of the action (we).
What does OZN-ul stand for, and how do you attach a definite article to an acronym?
OZN stands for Obiect Zburător Neidentificat (Unidentified Flying Object). Acronyms in Romanian take definite articles just like regular nouns, but they are attached with a hyphen. Since OZN is treated as a neuter noun ending in a consonant, it takes the masculine/neuter singular article -ul to become OZN-ul.
Why is the possessive adjective nostru used here instead of noastră?
The word radar is a neuter noun (singular un radar, plural două radare). Because neuter nouns behave like masculine nouns in the singular, the possessive adjective must be the masculine/neuter singular form nostru to match radarul.
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