Learn French: Il a signé le contrat sans accepter la garantie. - He signed the contract without accepting the guarantee.

In English, we say 'without accepting', but French grammar works differently here. When a verb directly follows a preposition like sans (without), it must always be in its infinitive (dictionary) form, which is accepter (to accept).

Since the sentence is in the past tense (a signé), why isn't accepter also in the past tense?

The first verb, a signé (signed), sets the main timeline in the past. However, the rule for sans + infinitive is absolute. The preposition sans forces the verb immediately after it to be an infinitive, regardless of when the action actually happened.

I learned that we often drop the article after sans, like sans sucre. Why is there a la before garantie?

You drop the article when the noun directly follows sans to describe a general lack of something (like 'without sugar'). In this sentence, the noun garantie doesn't follow sans directly; it follows the verb accepter. Because he is not accepting a specific thing, it needs its normal definite article la.

Does la garantie mean something specific in the context of a contract?