Word
Le voleur s'échappe sans que le gardien puisse réagir.
Meaning
The thief escapes without the guard being able to react.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Le voleur s'échappe sans que le gardien puisse réagir.
pouvoir
to be able to / can
réagir
to react
le voleur
the thief
s'échapper
to escape
Questions & Answers about Le voleur s'échappe sans que le gardien puisse réagir.
Why is puisse in the subjunctive here?
The phrase sans que (without) is a conjunction that always requires the subjunctive. It introduces an action that didn't actually happen, so we use the subjunctive puisse (from pouvoir, to be able to) instead of the normal present tense peut.
Could we just say sans pouvoir réagir instead of sans que le gardien puisse réagir?
No, because there are two different subjects in this sentence. The thief (le voleur) is escaping, but the guard (le gardien) is the one who cannot react. When the subject changes for the second action, you must use sans que followed by a conjugated verb. If the thief was doing both actions, you would use sans plus the infinitive: Le voleur s'échappe sans réagir.
Why is there an s' before échappe?
It comes from the pronominal verb s'échapper (to escape). While English just says "escapes" without an extra pronoun, French requires the reflexive pronoun here to carry the meaning of breaking free or getting away.
Why is réagir in its infinitive form rather than being conjugated too?
When two verbs appear together in a clause and the first one is conjugated (like puisse), the second verb remains in the infinitive (dictionary) form. This works just like in English, where the conjugated part is followed by "to react."