Sans la souris, je ne peux pas terminer le programme.

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Breakdown of Sans la souris, je ne peux pas terminer le programme.

• ne ... pas: not
• pouvoir: to be able to
• sans: without

Questions & Answers about Sans la souris, je ne peux pas terminer le programme.

Why is sans followed by la instead of de la, du, or nothing at all?

sans is a preposition meaning without and it never contracts with à or de. You always say sans le, sans la, sans les.

• You cannot form du (that’s de + le) or saun (non-existent).
• An article is only dropped after sans when you speak of something completely indefinite or uncountable: sans argent (without money), sans eau (without water).
  Here, la souris is a specific, countable item, so you keep the definite article.

Why is la souris feminine and singular, and how can I tell it refers to just one mouse?

In French, souris (both the animal and the computer mouse) is a feminine noun: une souris, la souris. The article la signals singular feminine. If you meant more than one, you’d say les souris. Note that the written form souris is identical for singular and plural, but the article (la/les) and context tell you which it is.

Why do we use je ne peux pas instead of just je peux pas or je ne peux?