Bonjour,
In one of the examples above:
Maintenant que ses parents n'étaient plus là, elle devait s'occuper de sa sœur.
However I'm confused because it states that Devoir with l'imparfait is "was supposed to [do]", however the translation is:
Now that her parents were gone, she had to take care of her sister.
Why is it not:
Now that her parents were gone, she was supposed to take care of her sister.
Merci
I think both English translations are possible. The French has this ambiguity and relies on context or different sentence constructions to be unambiguous.
"Now that her parents were gone, she had to take care of her sister."
The English has alternative meanings. I would have understood it as "her parents are gone and so she took care of her sister" (it definitely happened) rather than "she was meant to take care of her sister" (and may or may not have done). Would both readings use "devait"?
Bonjour,
In one of the examples above:
Maintenant que ses parents n'étaient plus là, elle devait s'occuper de sa sœur.
However I'm confused because it states that Devoir with l'imparfait is "was supposed to [do]", however the translation is:
Now that her parents were gone, she had to take care of her sister.
Why is it not:
Now that her parents were gone, she was supposed to take care of her sister.
Merci
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