Breakdown of Francamente, nuestro gato no debe rascarse la herida.
no
no, not
el gato
the cat
nuestro
our
deber
must / should
la herida
the wound
francamente
frankly
rascarse
to scratch oneself
Questions & Answers about Francamente, nuestro gato no debe rascarse la herida.
Why do we use la herida instead of su herida?
In Spanish, when referring to body parts, clothing, or things intimately attached to a being (like a wound), you usually use the definite article (el, la, los, las) rather than a possessive adjective like su. The ownership is already established by the reflexive pronoun se earlier in the sentence.
Why is the pronoun se attached to the end of rascar?
Rascar means to scratch. Adding the reflexive pronoun se makes it rascarse, showing that the cat is scratching itself. Because rascar is in its infinitive form here, you can attach the pronoun directly to the end of the word.
Is it possible to put the se before the conjugated verb instead?
Why isn't it no debe de rascarse?
Deber followed directly by an infinitive is used for obligations or rules, meaning must not scratch. If you add de to make it deber de, it changes the meaning to probability or a strong assumption, which would mean the cat must not be scratching right now. Since this is an obligation, we use deber without de.
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