This chapter considers the various ways in which linguistics can be exploited in MT systems. It presents an overview of approaches to linguistics and of how MT can make use of this discipline. Next, ways are examined in which linguistics can contribute to defining the abstract representations used in MT. Then, examples are studied where source and target sentences differ considerably in structure. The subsequent parts study the translation of tense and the functional aspects of language and the extent to which MT systems can incorporate these. A brief conclusion rounds off the chapter.