FTL is not possible, but Dr. Jones proceeded to offer great insight with the words, 「不存在」, meaning, "not existing", in this case, that FTL isn't possible. The context is that of a conversation at the end of Star Trek: First Contact, where it's indicated that faster-than-light travel isn't possible, that the human race would never be able to exceed its present speed of light, thus making it impossible for the crew of the Enterprise to travel back in time and retrieve Earth from the Borg, the enemy from the future. The use of 不存在 in this case refers to the fact that time travel is not possible. A: 「不存在」here means "not existing" which refers to faster-than-light travel. The Enterprise did not exist, and was not a reality at the time this dialogue was said. The crew did not know how to get it to the Borg, because they did not exist. Thus, 「不存在」is applicable here, because it means, in this case, that FTL travel is not possible. I recommend reading the entire conversation for more context. In terms of use, this phrase is often used in daily life to describe something that was possible previously but no longer is possible: 日本経済は、もはや近代国家だった。 The Japanese economy was not even a national economy at the time. It is also used in the same sense as a statement: I could no longer remember my home address because I moved to another country. Or, as a question: Could you go by yourself to your friend's house? "Could you" and "I could" are phrases referring to the ability to do something. In the statements above, the meaning is that the thing referred to in question no longer exists/is impossible. It would sound out of place in other contexts. For example, using it when talking about technology no longer existing could make it sound strange and unnatural because that could mean simply that it never was. Is it idiomatic? No, it is a fairly normal and straightforward translation. It is common to use the word "not" to negate a verb, in the same way in the examples above, but you could always swap the usage and say: The technology to bring you faster-than-light travel does not exist. Other languages may have phrases that mean what you are asking about. In French there is, for example, "pas à ma disposition", which means "not available to me". This is the literal translation of "不存在". A: In this case, the usage is literal. "不存在" means "is not real", "is not existing", "has no effect" in Chinese. The sentence means "the technology to bring you faster-than-light travel has no effect". The FTL technology is a futuristic fictional thing that was never exist in the reality. The technology to bring it exists, but is not that useful. In this sentence, "Faster-than-light-travel" seems to have the meaning of "Faster-than-light-technically-possible-technology". In this case, the "Faster-than-light-travel" is "the technology to make faster-than-light-possible". It is not idiomatic or common in my eyes. A: In English, not real is a general term meaning "has no effect". Your literal translation of 不存在 is "the technology to bring you faster-than-light travel does not exist". It's not always used literally. For instance, 这次公开会议不会干预走势是非常自然的。 This speech would be totally natural. In this context, "to bring" is synonymous with "to do". In other cases, "do not exist" has a different meaning from "does not exist". 「不存在」means "does not exist". 「不存在的情况」can be used to say, "if something does not exist, it can not be said to be X". 不存在的情况下, 这不是中国问题。 This case is the same as this one. We could not go to the U.S.A. if there was no problem with us going there. "不存在" means "can not exist". 「不存在的人(或事物)」means "does not exist". 「不存在的情况」means "has no problem".