Re: her instead of "his or her"

> "If someone decides to waste her time to translate this stuff..."
>

>
> In the sentence given, you need to use the present participle of the
verb 
> to translate instead of the infinitive form:-
>
> "If someone decides to waste her time translating this stuff..."
>
> I wish I had the ability to explain why. :-)


I am not a native speaker (of english), but tell me if you agree with me
on 
this explanation of mine:

"to waste her time to translate this stuff" seems to be a literal 
translation from the french "perdre son temps à traduire...".

But here, the sentence means that BY DOING that (translating), you will 
waste time. The time-wasting is the consequence of the translating.

If "TO" was used ("waste her time to translate this stuff"), "to" would 
suggest a goal (as "POUR traduire" in french). As if the goal of wasting 
one's time was to "translate this stuff", which makes no sense.

It is like in the old example of "I stopped smoking". You'll hear a lot of

french people say "I stopped to smoke", because in French we say "j'ai 
arrêté de fumer". But "I stopped to smoke" means "J'ai arrêté de faire ce 
que j'étais en train de faire pour prendre une pause cigarette" (en 
explicitant un peu!). "To+verb" often has that sense of goal, I find. If
it 
can have that sense, then it probably does.

Am I right?

C.