Breakdown of Ils sont dans le magasin sans nous.
être
to be
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
le magasin
the store
dans
in, inside
sans
without
Questions & Answers about Ils sont dans le magasin sans nous.
Why is nous used here for "us" when it usually means "we"?
nous is playing double duty here! In French, when a pronoun comes after a preposition like sans (without), you must use a "stressed pronoun". For the first person plural, the stressed pronoun happens to be exactly the same as the subject pronoun: nous.
Is magasin the same thing as an English "magazine"?
No, this is a classic "false friend"! In French, le magasin means the store or shop. If you want to read a publication, you'd look for an entirely different word that happens to be spelled exactly like the English one: le magazine.
Could I say au magasin instead of dans le magasin?
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