Linguist Forum

Specializations => Semantics and Pragmatics => Topic started by: mallu on July 14, 2020, 10:37:07 AM

Title: Il connaît le sanskrit
Post by: mallu on July 14, 2020, 10:37:07 AM

Hi Everyone, The following is the Google translation of the unacceptable  English sentence , He is knowing Sanskrit. is this correct translation - word by word translation  that retains the tense and aspect denoted by the English sentence.   Many thanks in advance

Title: Re: Il connaît le sanskrit
Post by: Daniel on July 14, 2020, 11:25:12 AM

(That's just literally "He knows [the] Sanskrit", with tense/aspect identical to the grammatical form in English.)

Title: Re: Il connaît le sanskrit
Post by: mallu on July 14, 2020, 08:08:20 PM

Thank you Daniel, So in French progressive aspect is possible with Statives too

Title: Re: Il connaît le sanskrit
Post by: Daniel on July 14, 2020, 10:21:36 PM

No-- "connaît" is "knows", not "is knowing". It's just a present tense form.
(Also, I believe the verb should be "sait", which means "knows [a fact]", as opposed to "connaît", which means "be familiar with [a person, etc.]".)

Relying on Google Translate for research with a language you don't know is not a good idea.