Why 'dovrebbero' and not 'dovrebbe' used in this sentence?
Ciao,

I hope someone may be able to help with this question.

In my Italian text book, there is the following sentence;

‘Secondo me ci dovrebbero essere più documentari’

Although its meaning is clear (in my opinion there should be more documentaries), I hope that someone may be able to explain why ‘dovrebbero’ Is used in the third person plural which I would thus translate as’

‘There THEY should/THEY ought to be more documentaries’

and which obviously doesn’t make sense in the context.

Why is the ‘THEY’ conjugation ‘dovrebbero’ used rather than what seems the obvious choice of ‘IT’ ‘dovrebbe?

Thanks very much

Kayleigh

Question

Why 'dovrebbero' and not 'dovrebbe' used in this sentence?
Ciao,

I hope someone may be able to help with this question.

In my Italian text book, there is the following sentence;

‘Secondo me ci dovrebbero essere più documentari’

Although its meaning is clear (in my opinion there should be more documentaries), I hope that someone may be able to explain why ‘dovrebbero’ Is used in the third person plural which I would thus translate as’

‘There     THEY should/THEY ought to be         more documentaries’

and which obviously doesn’t make sense in the context.

Why is the ‘THEY’ conjugation ‘dovrebbero’ used rather than what seems the obvious choice of ‘IT’ ‘dovrebbe?


Thanks very much

Kayleigh

Answer

Even though it may sound impersonal, the "documentari" are actually the "subject" of the sentence and thus the verb is plural. If we were to say:

"Questo show dovrebbe essere bandito" the verb is in the third person singular since show is a singular noun.

Other examples:
"Dovrebbero esserci delle leggi contro questo genere di comportamenti"
"Ci dovrebbe essere una legge che vieti questo genere di comportamenti".

Cheers

Answer

/ci/ in the sentence has the meaning of /here/; therefore a maybe correct
English translation could be:
-- more documentaries should be here.