Breakdown of Il annule la mutation sans que le chef l'ait approuvée.
il
he
sans
without
avoir
to have
le chef
the boss / the manager
annuler
to cancel
le
him, it (masculine direct object pronoun)
la
her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)
que
that (introducing a clause)
approuver
to approve (consent, agree with)
la mutation
the transfer
Questions & Answers about Il annule la mutation sans que le chef l'ait approuvée.
Why do we use the subjonctif passé (ait approuvée) here instead of the present subjunctive?
The past subjunctive is used when the action in the subjunctive clause happened before the action in the main clause. Here, the boss's (lack of) approval was expected before the transfer was canceled. Because sans que requires the subjunctive, we combine the present subjunctive of the auxiliary avoir (ait) with the past participle (approuvée).
Why does sans que require the subjunctive?
The conjunction sans que (without) introduces a situation that did not happen or is hypothetical. The subjunctive mood is required because the action of the boss approving it was never realized.
Why is there an extra e at the end of approuvée?
Even in the subjunctive mood, standard past participle agreement rules apply. The auxiliary verb is avoir, meaning the past participle must agree with the preceding direct object. Here, the object pronoun l' stands for la mutation (a feminine singular noun), so we add an e to make it approuvée.
Could we use an infinitive here, like sans l'avoir approuvée?
No, because the two clauses have different subjects. The subject of the first action is Il (he), and the subject of the second is le chef (the boss). You can only use sans plus an infinitive when the same subject performs both actions. Since the subjects are different, we must use sans que followed by a conjugated subjunctive verb.
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