• hperrin@lemmy.ca
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    15 hours ago

    Cause it doesn’t know the context, and it’s not smart enough to tell you that the context matters.

    It can translate “je ne te connais pas”, which also means “I don’t know you”, but “te” is familiar, so you wouldn’t say that to a stranger unless you were intentionally being very rude. But you would say that as an adult speaking to a child, even if the child is a stranger to you. You also wouldn’t say that to, like, your boss, even if they’re familiar with you, because you use the formal form with your boss. Even if Bobby did know who he was talking to, because they’re an adult and he’s a child, he would use “vous”. French is complicated.