It has been suggested to me that "deber" in the present tense (and other tenses as well) can be best translated as "must" and that "debería" (in the conditional tense) can be best translated as "should". Is this a reasonable supposition, or would you prefer to put forth a better way of translating this (sometimes enigmatic) verb?
deber vs. debería
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Gerald R.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
deber vs. debería
This question relates to:Spanish vocab and grammar list "Regular -er verbs in Spanish"
Asked 2 years ago
Hola Gerald
The modal verb "deber" generally means "must", that's right. And in the conditional: "debería" the equivalent is "should".
Here are these two Kwiziq lessons to see this in detail:
Using deber, poder, querer in Spanish + infinitive to express must, can, to want to
Using deber to say should in Spanish
But if you click here, where you can read some information about modal verbs in general and scroll down, you'll see more lessons about other uses and conjugations of deber.
I hope it's helpfful.
Saludos cordiales
Inma
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