She can’t speak both English and French.

[diamondcutter]

--I need a girl who can speak both English and French. What about Stella?
--She can’t speak both English and French. She can only speak French.

(by me)

I wonder if the sentence--she can’t speak both English and French--is correct in this context.

 

[Elizabeth Jones]

Yes. It's correct

 

[tedmc]

It is correct but not natural as a response to the question.

She can't speak English; she can only speak French.

 

[Tarheel]

Or:

She can speak French but not English.

 

[emsr2d2]

The response wouldn't even need to include the information about French.

Ted: I need someone who speaks English and French. What about Stella?
Sarah: She can't speak English.

 

[diamondcutter]

--We need a person who can both swim and skate. What about you?
--Sorry, I can’t both swim and skate. I can only swim.

(also by me)

This dialogue may be unnatural too. I just want to know if this sentence--I can’t both swim and skate--is also possible in this context.

And I wonder if it’s natural to say “I can’t do both.” instead of saying “I can’t both swim and skate.”

 

[Tarheel]

We need a person who can both swim and skate. What about you?

I can only swim.

I can only skate.

I can't do both.

Three possibilities. There are others.

 

[jutfrank]

I wonder if the sentence--she can’t speak both English and French--is correct in this context.

This dialogue may be unnatural too. I just want to know if this sentence--I can’t both swim and skate--is also possible in this context.

I suspect you have two separate questions in mind concerning these sentences.

1) Are they natural?
2) Are they logical?

Is that right? If so, you may well get different answers, depending on what you mean.

 

[diamondcutter]

--I’ve heard that you can both swim and skate.
--It’s not that I can do both. I can just do one of them--swim.
(by me)

In Chinese, we can say “It’s not that I can do both” in this context. I wonder if in English it’s also possible. Maybe there’s another way to express the meaning of the sentence. If so, could you please teach me?

 

[jutfrank]

As suggested in post #5, a natural response to this latest question would be either:

No, I can't skate.
I can swim but I can't skate.

A bit less likely, but perhaps more in line with how you're thinking about this, is:

No, I can't do both.

 

[diamondcutter]

Thanks so much for your help, teachers.

I wonder if my following understanding is correct.

Although ‘she can’t speak both English and French’, ‘I can’t both swim and skate’ and ‘it’s not that I can do both’ are grammatically correct and understandable, there isn't a possible context for native speakers to say them.

 

[Tarheel]

I've heard that you can both swim and skate.

You heard wrong.

I can swim, but I can't skate.

I can skate, but I can't swim.

Yes, I can do both.

Some possibilities. (Note that I didn't include your sentence.)

 

[Tarheel]

Diamondcutter, you seem stuck.

 

[diamondcutter]

I suspect you have two separate questions in mind concerning these sentences.

1) Are they natural?
2) Are they logical?

Is that right? If so, you may well get different answers, depending on what you mean.

Yes. Now I know that my replies--‘she can’t speak both English and French’ and ‘I can’t both swim and skate’--are logical but not natural. And I already know what native speakers usually say in that context.

 

[diamondcutter]

Diamondcutter, you seem stuck.

Sorry to keep troubling you. It's my students to continue to ask me those questions.:-D

 

[Tarheel]

Sorry to keep troubling you. It's my students that keep asking me these questions.:-D

:-?

 

[jutfrank]

Although ‘she can’t speak both English and French’, ‘I can’t both swim and skate’ and ‘it’s not that I can do both’ are grammatically correct and understandable, there isn't a possible context for native speakers to say them.

There are contexts, yes, of course. Is that really what you mean, though? Are you actually asking how likely they would be? Or how natural they are?

 

[diamondcutter]

There are contexts, yes, of course. Is that really what you mean, though? Are you actually asking how likely they would be? Or how natural they are?

Teacher: I’ve heard you can both swim and skate, Tom.
Tom: I can’t both swim and skate, sir. I can only swim.

In China, when this conversation happens between a teacher and a little boy, the boy’s reply usually goes like what has been typed above, which is looked as a polite reply. If the boy just says “I can’t skate”, that will be regarded as bad manners.

The problem is that I don’t know how to translate the boy’s words into English properly. I just guess it may be the sentences I’ve already posted.

I don’t know if I’ve made myself understood. If so, would you please teach me what’s the proper way to put the Chinese boy’s reply into English.

Jutfrank says “There are contexts”, I wonder if I could trouble you to provide me the contexts for my sentences as follows.
She can’t speak both English and French.
I can’t both swim and skate.
It’s not that I can do both.

 

[jutfrank]

Teacher: I’ve heard you can both swim and skate, Tom.
Tom: I can’t both swim and skate, sir. I can only swim.

In China, when this conversation happens between a teacher and a little boy, the boy’s reply usually goes like what has been typed above, which is looked as a polite reply.

That exchange does not 'usually' happen anywhere in the world, not between anybody, and not in any language. In fact, that conversation has never happened in the entire history of conversations.

The problem is that I don’t know how to translate the boy’s words into English properly.

If you want to translate a particular text that you have written from Chinese into English, you might try to post it in the original language in the Other Languages section of this forum. We have several other Chinese speakers who may be able to help.

would you please teach me what’s the proper way to put the Chinese boy’s reply into English.

It's already in English! You obviously mean the Chinese language version that you've invented. Like I say, the non-Chinese-speakers here would have no idea how to do that, even if you told us what it was.

If you just want to ask about a natural way to express a particular thought in English, then that's a different matter, but stop thinking about trying to translate from Chinese. It does not matter how you would say it in Chinese.

The exchange you've written above, despite being not very likely to happen, is a reasonable enough way to say what you're trying to say, I think.

 

[Tarheel]

Teacher: I’ve heard you can both swim and skate, Tom.
Tom: I can’t both swim and skate, sir. I can only swim.

In China, when this conversation happens between a teacher and a little boy, the boy’s reply usually goes like what has been typed above, which is regarded as a polite reply. If the boy just says “I can’t skate”, that would be regarded as bad manners.

I can't imagine the teacher saying that. (Why would he do so?)