Question 1

Why is the future perfect (sera servie) translated as "must have used" instead of "will have used"?

Accepted Answer

This is the epistemic use of the future tense, or le futur de probabilité. In French, you can use the future perfect (le futur antérieur) to express a strong assumption or deduction about a past event. While it literally translates to "will have used", in this context it means "probably used" or "must have used".

Question 2

Why do we need the pronoun en here instead of a direct object pronoun like les?

Accepted Answer

The verb for "to use" here is se servir de. Because the object (des flèches) is introduced by the preposition de, you have to replace the whole phrase with the pronoun en. If the verb were utiliser, which takes a direct object, you would use les: la troupe les aura utilisées.

Question 3

Why is there an -e at the end of the past participle servie?

Accepted Answer

Reflexive verbs like se servir use the auxiliary être in compound tenses, and their past participle agrees with the preceding direct object. Here, the reflexive pronoun s' acts as the direct object, referring back to the subject la troupe (a feminine singular noun). Therefore, servi takes an -e to become servie.

Question 4

Why use the imperfect tense (avions) in the first clause instead of the passé composé?

Accepted Answer

Nous avions describes a past state or ongoing situation (the possession of the arrows) rather than a completed, isolated action. Because it merely sets the background context for the assumption that follows, the imperfect is the correct choice.

Nous avions des flèches, mais la troupe s'en sera servie.

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