Sans doute l'orbite dont il a besoin est-elle lointaine.
Probably the orbit that he needs is distant.
Breakdown of Sans doute l'orbite dont il a besoin est-elle lointaine.
être
to be
il
he
elle
she
la
her, it (feminine direct object pronoun)
avoir besoin de
to need
lointain
distant
dont
whose / about which / of which
sans doute
probably
l'orbite (f)
the orbit (f)
Questions & Answers about Sans doute l'orbite dont il a besoin est-elle lointaine.
Why do we say est-elle instead of just est?
Starting a sentence with the adverb Sans doute triggers subject-verb inversion in written or formal French. Because the main subject is a noun (l'orbite) rather than a pronoun, we must use complex inversion. This means we state the noun subject first, followed by the verb (est), and then attach a matching pronoun (elle) with a hyphen.
Doesn't Sans doute mean without a doubt? Why is it translated as probably?
It looks like without a doubt, but over time its meaning has weakened. In modern French, sans doute is a false friend that usually just means probably or likely. If you want to express absolute certainty (without a doubt), you need to use sans aucun doute.
Why use dont instead of que for the word that?
The French expression for to need is avoir besoin de. Whenever a relative clause replaces a phrase that requires the preposition de, we must use the relative pronoun dont. You can think of l'orbite dont il a besoin literally as the orbit of which he has need.
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