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Topic: Translation issue:
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Two questions about this three sentences:
You can't always get what you want.
You can't get what you want always.
Not always you can get what you want.
1- Are they grammatically correct?
2- Do they mean the same thing?
Thanks,
Beco.
PS. The first one is a Rolling Stone lyric.
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Well, I,m dutch, but I give it a try.
If I am wrong Richerby will correct me anyway?
The first and third means the same. Only I think the third one should be like this:
Not always, you can get what you want.
The second doesn,t look correct to me. It sounds more like "You never get what you want" to me.
Richerby???
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The first is totally standard American English. The "always" refers to the getting. The second would be said by some people, and they would probably mean to be saying the same as the first, but grammatically it's different; the "always" refers more strongly to wanting, not getting, because of proximity. BTW, "always want" instead of "want always" would be much better and clearer. The third definitely means the same as the first, but is awkward and slightly ungrammatical; the "always" again refers to the getting, but the "always" is emphasized, and would probably be said in response to someone's saying, "You can always get what you want." The response means, "No, not always." Actually, the subject and verb should be reversed: "Not always can you get what you want." It's still a bit awkward, but more grammatically correct. This is a holdover from English grammar's Germanic heritage.
Hope this helps.
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Tewald, thanks very much for this great clarification on the matter!
Thanks for the nice try also Kloosterveen.
Beco.
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Once again, tewald an I are in slight disagreement about English grammar. 
As tewald says, the first sentence is absolutely correct and means `There are times when you want something but you can't get it.' The second is OK as it stands and, as tewald says, would be used to mean something like `It's not true that you can always get what you want (but you probably can most of the time).' Personally, I'd like a comma before `always'.
However, I think that `You can't get what you always want' means something completely different: viz., `If you want something all the time, you can't get it (but you can probably get it if you only want it some of the time).' Certainly, `He got what he always wanted' means `There was a thing that he wanted forever and he got it' rather than `Every time he wanted something, he got it.' (`He always got what he wanted.')
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Allright Richerby,
so my comment on the second one, was not that far beyond the meaning.
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