Re: The cost of time

On 13 Feb 02, at 17:21, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> On the other hand, the Dutch prefix "be-" is much more difficult to
> pin down. Until now, I have been unable to give it a precise meaning,
> for the simple reason that when you have pairs of verbs, one with the
> prefix and one without, they are translated in French by either one
> and the same verb, or by two unrelated verbs :)) . How can you give a
> meaning to such a prefix then :)) .
In German it sometimes makes intransitive verbs transitive. For
example, "Auf eine Frage antworten" --> "Eine Frage beantworten" (to
answer a question). In the first sentence, "antworten" is intransitive
and the question is part of a prepositional phrase; in the second, the
question is the direct object of the verb.

But it can have other meanings, too ;)

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>