>
> [思い切って「妊娠してるの」と告げると彼は「俺の子だと言うのか？」と言った。](http://classic.jisho.org/sentences?jap=%E6%80%9D%E3%81%84%E5%88%87%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%80%8C%E5%A6%8A%E5%A8%A0%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%82%8B%E3%81%AE%E3%80%8D%E3%81%A8%E5%91%8A%E3%81%92%E3%82%8B%E3%81%A8%E5%BD%BC%E3%81%AF%E3%80%8C%E4%BF%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%AD%90%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A8%E8%A8%80%E3%81%86%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B%EF%BC%9F%E3%80%8D%E3%81%A8%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E3%80%82&eng=)
>
> When I braced myself and said, "I'm pregnant" he said "Are you saying it's
> mine?"

The translation puzzles me. "Saying" would normally be used for 言っている, but it
is used for 言う instead. A case could be made that the translation is being
liberal, but other example sentences make me suspicious:

>
> [どうして謝るのですか](http://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/%22%E3%81%A9%E3%81%86%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E8%AC%9D%E3%82%8B%22)
>
> Why are you apologizing?

Perhaps, there are more bad translations than I thought, but even then, there
are cases where I cannot think that the present tense of a verb is anything
but progressive. For example, [there is this
trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbqOCoBkGvg) (the example sentence is
at 4:29)

> もう。何を言わせるのよ

So, when 言う is translated as "saying," particularly in dramatic situations
such as 「私はダメだと言うの？」 is it a liberal translation and they really mean habitual
action or is it literally "saying?"
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grammar
Why is "saying" used for the translation of 言う?
This is just a result of you trying to map English onto Japanese. It's fine to
say these in Japanese, but because of the subtle differences in the ways
English and Japanese can handle verb tenses, the translation to English
changes it into a progressive "ing" despite it being hammered into our brains
in Japanese 101 that "ing" is for "ている."

Rather, what would _you_ suggest as an alternative translation? For どうして謝る
would you say "Why do you apologize?" I'd wager that you would agree that "why
are you apologizing?" is more natural/better than "why do you apologize?"
CC BY-SA 3.0
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answer