Breakdown of Le chien de garde ne laisse entrer personne.
le chien
the dog
ne
not (used before the verb)
entrer
to enter
personne
nobody / no one
laisser
to leave (something or someone)
la garde
the guard duty, the watch
Questions & Answers about Le chien de garde ne laisse entrer personne.
How does the verb laisser work with entrer in this sentence?
When expressing permission, French pairs laisser (to let / allow) directly with an infinitive verb. Here, laisse entrer literally means 'lets enter', which gives us the English meaning 'lets in'.
Why is there a ne but no pas in this sentence?
Why is personne placed at the very end of the sentence?
While shorter negative words like pas or rien usually go between the conjugated verb and the infinitive (for example, ne laisse pas entrer), personne behaves more like a regular noun object. It gets placed at the end, after the infinitive verb it belongs to.
Why is a guard dog called a chien de garde instead of just chien garde?
In French, you cannot stack nouns next to each other to create a new term like you do in English ('guard dog' or 'water bottle'). Instead, you use the preposition de to link them when the second noun describes the purpose or function of the first noun (literally: 'dog of guard').
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