Re: Re[2]: [tied] French Gerund v. Participle

From: enlil@...
Message: 34949
Date: 2004-11-03

Brian:
> Nor does it mean the same thing. People who speak French
> may be speaking English.


So would "people speaking French"! You're splitting more hairs
and they may be used interchangeably in both English AND French
despite what you may consider grammatically appropriate. Regular
people don't speak "grammatically appropriate". Only grammarians
do and even they have a lapse from time to time.

Look in Google and do the following searches:

"des personnes parlant francais"
(143 entries)

"des personnes qui parlent francais"
(67 entries)

"des personnes qui parlent le francais"
(20 entries)

"des personnes qui parle le francais"
(2 entries)


And now English, or rather what's left of the pieces:

"people who speak English"
(6330 entries)

"people speaking English"
(2230 entries)

"people who speaks English"
(644 entries)

"people who speek English"
(7 entries)

"da peeps who be talkin' ma language"
(surprisingly, no entries)


= gLeN