Let us consider a hard case for word sense disambiguation, in the context of French to Corsican MT. But the same goes for French to English MT. It relates to French words such as: ‘accomplit’, ‘affaiblit’, ‘affranchit’, ‘alourdit’, ‘amortit’. The corresponding verbs ‘accomplir’ (to fulfill, to accomplish), ‘affaiblir’ (to weaken), ‘affranchir’ (to free), ‘alourdir’ (to burden), ‘amortir’ (to damp) have the same word for simple present and simple past at the third person singular: respectively ‘accomplit’, ‘affaiblit’, ‘affranchit’, ‘alourdit’, ‘amortit’. The upshot is that a single sentence such as: ‘Il affaiblit sa position.’ can be translated either into he weakens his position or into he weakened his position. If the context is unambiguous with regard to the sence of the discourse, the correct tense can be adequately chosen. But in the lack of informative context, it would be opportune to let the ambiguity prevail.

It should be pointed out that any such verbs are not rare. A more complete list includes: accomplit, affaiblit, affranchit, alourdit, amortit, anéantit, anoblit, aplatit, arrondit, assombrit, bannit, bâtit, blanchit, blondit, démolit, éblouit, emplit, enfouit, enhardit, enlaidit, ennoblit, envahit, épaissit, étourdit, exclut, franchit, glapit, investit, jaunit, jouit, munit, noircit, obéit, obscurcit, occit, périt, réagit, régit, réjouit, remplit, répartit, resplendit, rétrécit, rit, rougit, rouvrit, saisit, sévit, surgit.

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