Debe vs. debería

Gerald R.B2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Debe vs. debería

To say "He must have closed the door.", does one simply switch to the present indicative of deber and say "Él debe haber cerrado la puerta." or can one stay with the simple conditional and say "Debería haber cerrado la puerta." and translate it into English as must or should, depending on context?

I think this issue boils down to trying to know when to translate deber as "should" or as "must". ¿Puedes ayudarme?

Asked 7 hours ago
Gerald R. asked:

Debe vs. debería

To say "He must have closed the door.", does one simply switch to the present indicative of deber and say "Él debe haber cerrado la puerta." or can one stay with the simple conditional and say "Debería haber cerrado la puerta." and translate it into English as must or should, depending on context?

I think this issue boils down to trying to know when to translate deber as "should" or as "must". ¿Puedes ayudarme?

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