Word
La sentinelle ne bouge plus, elle dormira.
Meaning
The sentry is no longer moving, she must be sleeping.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of La sentinelle ne bouge plus, elle dormira.
elle
she
dormir
to sleep
ne... plus
(not) anymore / no longer
bouger
to move
Questions & Answers about La sentinelle ne bouge plus, elle dormira.
Why is the future tense dormira translated as "must be sleeping" instead of "will sleep"?
This is the "futur de probabilité" (epistemic future) that you are currently learning. In French, the future tense is often used to express a strong assumption, probability, or deduction about a present situation. By saying elle dormira, the speaker is guessing why the sentry isn't moving right now.
Could I use the verb devoir to say "she must be sleeping" instead?
Does the pronoun elle mean we know the sentry is a woman?
Why does the English translation use the continuous "is moving" and "sleeping" when French just uses simple verbs?
French doesn't have an exact equivalent to the English "-ing" continuous tenses. The present tense bouge can mean "moves" or "is moving", and the future dormira can mean "will sleep", "will be sleeping", or (as a probability) "must be sleeping". The context tells us this is an ongoing action.