Breakdown of Nous ne pouvons pas nous passer d'eau.
l'eau
the water
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
ne
not (used before the verb)
pas
not (used after the verb)
Questions & Answers about Nous ne pouvons pas nous passer d'eau.
How does the verb passer end up meaning "do without" here?
Why are there two nous in this sentence, and why is the second one placed right before passer?
The first nous is the subject of the sentence. The second nous is the reflexive pronoun that goes with the infinitive se passer. Even when a pronominal verb is left in its infinitive form after a conjugated verb like pouvons, its reflexive pronoun must still match the subject and is placed immediately before the infinitive.
Why does the sentence use d'eau instead of the usual partitive article de l'eau?
The verbal expression is se passer de, which inherently ends with the preposition de. When this preposition meets a partitive article like de l' (meaning "some"), French grammar rules dictate that the article is dropped to avoid awkward phrasing like "de de l'eau". This leaves only the preposition de, which contracts to d' before the vowel in eau.
If we dropped d'eau, could nous nous passons mean "we are happening"?