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Tu ne peux pas arriver en retard sans excuse.

Tu ne peux pas arriver en retard sans excuse.
You cannot arrive late without an excuse.
From Lesson 94:The preposition without (sans)·French

Questions & Answers about Tu ne peux pas arriver en retard sans excuse.

Why is there no word for 'an' in sans excuse?
After the preposition sans (without), French usually drops the indefinite articles (un, une, des). Because you are talking about lacking a general thing, 'without an excuse' is simply sans excuse, not sans une excuse.
Why is 'late' translated as en retard? Can I just say tard?
No, you cannot use tard here. In French, tard refers to a late time of day (like 'it is late at night'). When a person or an event is delayed and not on time, you must use the phrase en retard (literally, 'in delay').
Why is the verb arriver in its infinitive form?
When two verbs are used back-to-back, only the first one is conjugated. Since peux (can) is already conjugated for Tu, the second verb (arriver) must stay in its unconjugated dictionary form.
Why does the ne ... pas go around peux and not arriver?
In French, the ne ... pas negation wraps around the conjugated verb. Since peux is the conjugated verb in this sentence, it becomes ne peux pas, while the infinitive arriver is placed directly after it.

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