Le joueur surveille le sablier tout le temps.

In French, you usually need an article before a singular countable noun.

So:

• le joueur = the player
• un joueur = a player

French uses articles more often than English does. Saying just joueur by itself would usually sound incomplete in a normal sentence.

They belong to two different nouns:

• Le joueur = the player
• le sablier = the hourglass

Each noun needs its own article. French does not normally let one the cover both nouns the way English sometimes feels like it might.

Joueur means player.

It is the masculine singular form.
If the player is female, French often uses:

• la joueuse = the female player

So:

• Le joueur surveille... = The male player / the player watches...
• La joueuse surveille... = The female player watches...

In some contexts, joueur can also be a general dictionary form, but in an actual sentence it is grammatically masculine.

Surveiller is the infinitive, meaning to watch, to monitor, or to keep an eye on.

In the sentence, the verb has to be conjugated to match le joueur (he / the player), so it becomes:

• je surveille = I watch
• tu surveilles = you watch
• il / elle surveille = he/she watches

So Le joueur surveille... means The player watches / monitors...

It is the present tense.

French present tense can translate into English in more than one way depending on context, for example:

• The player watches the hourglass all the time
• The player is watching the hourglass all the time

So the French present can sometimes cover both the English simple present and present progressive.

Surveiller usually means more than just to look at. It often suggests:

• watching carefully
• monitoring
• keeping track of
• keeping an eye on

By contrast, regarder usually just means to look at or to watch visually.

So if someone is paying close attention to an hourglass, surveiller is a very natural choice.

Un sablier means an hourglass or sand timer.

It comes from sable meaning sand. So a sablier is literally something related to sand.

It is a masculine noun, which is why the sentence has le sablier.

Tout le temps is a very common fixed expression meaning:

• all the time
• constantly
• the whole time

Breakdown:

• tout = all
• le temps = the time

Together, though, it works as one expression: tout le temps.

Be careful: you should learn it as a chunk, because translating word by word can be misleading.

Because tout le temps is the correct idiomatic expression for all the time.

• tout le temps = all the time / constantly

Tous les temps means something else, more like all the tenses or all the times, depending on context. It is not the normal way to say all the time in this sentence.

So this is a case where the idiomatic French expression does not match what an English speaker might guess.

In French, expressions of time like tout le temps often come after the main verb and its object.

So this order is very natural:

• Le joueur surveille le sablier tout le temps.

That structure is basically:

• subject + verb + object + time expression

It sounds normal and straightforward in French.

It is understandable, but it is less natural in this neutral context.

French usually prefers:

• Le joueur surveille le sablier tout le temps.

Placing tout le temps before le sablier can put a bit more focus on all the time, but with a full noun object like le sablier, the original word order is usually smoother.

If the object were a pronoun, the order would change:

• Le joueur le surveille tout le temps.

So word order in French depends partly on whether the object is a noun or a pronoun.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

• sur-VAY

A bit more carefully:

• the r is the French r
• the ending -eille sounds like -ay / -ey
• the final e is not pronounced

So surveille is pronounced roughly sur-VAY, not sur-veil like English veil.

A simple approximation is:

• sa-blee-YAY

More precisely:

• sa as in sah
• bli sounds like blee
• er at the end sounds like yay in many learning approximations

So sablier is roughly sah-blee-yay.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

French present tense is flexible. So:

• habitual: the player watches the hourglass all the time
• current/ongoing: the player is watching the hourglass the whole time

The phrase tout le temps often pushes the meaning toward constantly or repeatedly, but the exact nuance comes from the situation.

Yes. Joueur can mean player in many senses, including:

• a game player
• a sports player
• a participant in a game
• sometimes a gambler, depending on context

The exact meaning depends on the situation. In a sentence with an hourglass, many learners might imagine a board game, puzzle, or timed activity, so player is the safest general meaning.

Yes—these useful chunks are worth learning as whole units:

• le joueur = the player
• surveiller = to monitor / watch carefully
• le sablier = the hourglass
• tout le temps = all the time / constantly

Also notice the very common French sentence pattern:

• subject + verb + object + time expression

That pattern appears all the time in basic French sentences.