Devant + gerund

In the following passage (Le Monde's on current traffic pileups in Savoie) , what is the meaning of 'devant' ?

...seuls les véhicules équipés de chaînes pourront poursuivre leur progression, notamment vers les stations, les autres devant interrompre temporairement leur voyage.

( It seems to say that the rest of traffics can proceed **before** interrupting, but wouldn't 'after' make a lot more sense? )

Thank you for any responses.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on December 27, 2014 at 9:57pm

"Devant" here does not mean "in front of" or "before".

It is in fact the ("-ing") present participle of the verb "devoir" (that infinitive means "to have to " or "to be obliged to " or "must" ).

Here it is followed by "interrompre" and so it is saying that the other (vehicles) are "being obliged" to interrupt.....etc etc.

Hope that cleared it up for you....

So it goes :

devoir = "to have to" or " I must"

je dois
tu dois
il /elle doit
nous devons
vous devez
ils /elles doivent

je devais j'ai dû

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Permalink Reply by Robert on December 28, 2014 at 3:05pm

Thanks, that makes sense.

In the following, can it be read that the nurse examines the patient before admitting him?

Le médecin va examiner le patient, l'infirmière devant l'admettre.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on December 28, 2014 at 6:38pm

No that is the same construction as before.

If you want to say "before admitting him" you could say "avant (not "devant") de l'admettre " but here that would make no sense unless you changed it further to read :

The doctor will examine the patient and the nurse before admitting them (which sounds like fun!) and in that unlikely case the French would go something like :

"Le médecin va examiner le patient, et l'infirmière avant de les admettre."

As it stands though your example says that "The doctor will examine the patient ,with the nurse being required to admit him"

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Permalink Reply by Robert on December 29, 2014 at 5:23am

Thanks. I see everything better now.
Except why 'les admettre' in your example? (Instead of ' l'admettre' - singular). I had in mind the nurse examines the patient first, and then admits him in to be examined by the doctor. But I see that this example is sort of murky.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on December 29, 2014 at 12:08pm

In the initial example I understood the order to be for the doctor first to examine the patient -but no order is specifically mentioned and I may have been wrong..

It is not actually stated where the nurse admits the patient to and so I do not know if she is admitting him to the room where the doctor makes his or her examination -or to some other hospital or location depending on the results of the doctor's examination.

Besides ,my use of |"les" was a bit of a joke as presumably the nurse will not need to be admitted (although perhaps "les admettre" could have a simple meaning of "show them in"