“Je ne devrais pas avoir à passer derrière toi !”
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“Je ne devrais pas avoir à passer derrière toi !”
Brian, devoir is a ‘semi-auxiliary’ verb, and except in one context, will always be followed by an infinitive verb. You cannot use devoir on its own here - it makes no sense in French.
In the construct, it fills the role that the modal ‘should’ does in English, and the overall structure is not that different -
‘ne devrais pas’ - shouldn’t/ should not
‘avoir à’ - have to
‘passer derrière toi’ ‘ - go/walk/pass behind you.
The exception is devoir-noun - in which devoir has a different meaning, “owe something”.
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/devoir-lesson/
https://www.wordreference.com/fren/avoir%20à%20faire
https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/my-languages/french/glossary/111
Hi Maarten, thanks for breaking that down. And great links too!
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