"Он не видит девочку."
Translation:He does not see the girl.
23 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1005
Can it not also mean "He does not see a girl"? or should it specifically be "the" in this case?
840
So the translation here is "he does not see THE girl", right? As in he doesnt see a specific girl. The Girl.
What about a situation when the girl is just a random girl? What if I want to say "he does not see a girl"? What's the difference in Russian between a specific girl and just a girl?
The present progressive is not usually used neutrally with sensory verbs in English. With seeing in particular, saying, "I am seeing someone," also usually means, "dating/in a sort of romantic relationship with." To me, in most cases, "I am not seeing a girl," implies that I am expected to see a girl as well. There is no sense of expectation in the Russian sentence.