Word
Elle a annoncé que sa belle-sœur était enceinte.
Meaning
She announced that her sister-in-law was pregnant.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Elle a annoncé que sa belle-sœur était enceinte.
être
to be
elle
she
avoir
to have
son
his/her/its (son, sa, ses)
Questions & Answers about Elle a annoncé que sa belle-sœur était enceinte.
Why is était in the imparfait tense instead of the present tense?
This is the sequence of tenses in reported speech. If she had spoken directly, she would have used the present tense: Ma belle-sœur est enceinte. Because the reporting verb a annoncé is in the past, the present tense est shifts back to the imparfait était.
In English, we could say She announced her sister-in-law was pregnant. Can we drop que in French?
No, you can never drop que in French. Even though we often leave out the English equivalent that, que is strictly required in French to connect the two halves of the sentence.
Why is it sa belle-sœur? Does sa match with the subject Elle?
No, French possessive adjectives match the gender of the noun being owned, not the owner. Here, sa matches the feminine noun belle-sœur. If a man had made the announcement, it would still be sa belle-sœur to mean his sister-in-law.