How to translate: Après ce que vous et [nom] probablement dû faire pour survivre, vous êtes de retour sur les rues dangereuses de [place], à la merci d’autres âmes compatissantes.

Question

Après ce que vous et [nom] probablement dû faire pour survivre, vous êtes de retour sur les rues dangereuses de [place], à la merci d’autres âmes compatissantes.

Which translation is more accurate and why?

1. After what you and [name] probably had to do to survive, you are back on the dangerous streets of [place], at the mercy of other compassionate souls.
2. After that you and [name] probably had to survive, at the mercy of others compassionate souls when you returned to the dangerous streets of [place].

Thank you

Answer 1

The first one is more accurate, but there is a problem with the original French: it is missing the auxiliary verb "ont" (avoir in the third person plural).

Après ce que que vous et [nom] ont probablement dû faire pour survivre, vous êtes de retour sur les rues dangereuses de [lieu - non "place"], à la merci d'autres âmes compatissantes.

Then the first translation is accurate.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

HI Sandy,

John is correct in that the first translation is better and that the French auxiliary verb is missing in the translation. However, the subject of your sentence is "vous et (nom)", meaning you can still summarize the subject with the pronoun "vous", not "ils." Therefore, the missing auxiliary verb needs to be avez, not ont.

You know this is the case because you see the pronoun subject repeated in the second phrase: vous êtes.

Best of luck with your studies!