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That is simply not the meaning of the word "let" in this context. Just to let you know I know what you mean, here's an expression using "let" in both senses:

That is simply not the meaning of the word "let" in this context. Just to let you know I know what you mean, here's an expression using "let" in both senses: 1. How could you let him do that? 2. I didn't "let" him do that. How was I supposed to know he would do that? He never asked me. Here 1 uses your meaning and 2 uses mine. Donald Trump's transcript uses 2, not 1. (Another usage of 1 is whenever someone says 'how could you let this happen'? That never means allow.) Another example is one someone says: "I can't believe I let this happen." They don't mean "allow" then. However, in Trump's transcript he means the allow meaning. You can be quite certain, because he set the context clearly. Basically, quoting "grab them by the pussy" is leaving out the meaning as uttered. It's a nice scary quote. As a translator you have to kind of mistranslate it so it is shocking but also grammatically kind of still matches the imperative. But that's not what was said.

cm2012 8y ago
We're going to have to seriously disagree here. The people who have accused him of sexual assault (their stories written down before the video came out) described the experience in the way I defined it. Trump shocking them by kissing them in the mouth out of nowhere, grabbing them, etc.
- smartchouce 8y ago
  The people you quote would say "no" to the question "Did you let Trump do that?" (No.) Knowing that women don't let him do that might might be a good reason to put words in Trump's mouth and remove "they'll let you" from his sentence, but it is not a faithful translation. What he said was that they let you do that. It's not true that the women let him do that, but that's what was uttered. As a translator, you don't get to change what someone said, to instead match the truth that you learn from somewhere else. For an example, a famous lie is that Nixon said "I am not a crook." We know he was a criminal who resigned due to his criminal activities. So can I change that line from "I am not a crook" to, "Nixon called himself a crook"? After all the reason for his statement or the use of the word crook was the fact that he was a crook, and making a public address on this subject. Of course not. And likewise it's wrong to change "they let you grab 'em by the pussy" to "grab 'em by the pussy" by misquoting the sentence. It's there in black and white, you just have to read it.

cm2012 8y ago

We're going to have to seriously disagree here. The people who have accused him of sexual assault (their stories written down before the video came out) described the experience in the way I defined it. Trump shocking them by kissing them in the mouth out of nowhere, grabbing them, etc.

smartchouce 8y ago
The people you quote would say "no" to the question "Did you let Trump do that?" (No.) Knowing that women don't let him do that might might be a good reason to put words in Trump's mouth and remove "they'll let you" from his sentence, but it is not a faithful translation. What he said was that they let you do that. It's not true that the women let him do that, but that's what was uttered. As a translator, you don't get to change what someone said, to instead match the truth that you learn from somewhere else. For an example, a famous lie is that Nixon said "I am not a crook." We know he was a criminal who resigned due to his criminal activities. So can I change that line from "I am not a crook" to, "Nixon called himself a crook"? After all the reason for his statement or the use of the word crook was the fact that he was a crook, and making a public address on this subject. Of course not. And likewise it's wrong to change "they let you grab 'em by the pussy" to "grab 'em by the pussy" by misquoting the sentence. It's there in black and white, you just have to read it.