Breakdown of Ella debe de ser muy cariñosa con él.
ser
to be
él
he / him (after a preposition)
ella
she / her (after a preposition)
con
with / just by (+ -ing)
muy
very
de
linking word before an infinitive (after 'to have just')
deber
should, must (+ infinitive)
cariñoso
affectionate
Questions & Answers about Ella debe de ser muy cariñosa con él.
Why is there a "de" after "debe"?
While deber followed directly by an infinitive usually means obligation (she has to do something), adding de creates deber de, which expresses probability or a strong guess. Here, debe de ser means "she must be" or "she probably is" affectionate.
Could we use "estar" instead of "ser" with "cariñosa"?
Why do we use "él" here instead of "le" or "lo"?
Because it comes right after a preposition. Words like con (with), de (from), and para (for) require prepositional pronouns instead of direct or indirect object pronouns. For "him", the correct prepositional pronoun is él, giving us con él.
Why does "él" have an accent mark?
The written accent is used to distinguish the pronoun él (he or him) from the definite article el (the). Since it means "him" in this sentence, the accent is absolutely necessary to show the difference.
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