What’s The Difference Between ‘Saber’ and ‘Conocer’?
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? It’s Brenda Romaniello here today. It’s time for Hola Tuesday, your weekly Spanish lesson!!
Romi and I went to a baby shower on Sunday. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had high tea at the Gunners Barracks in Mosman, a beautiful place overlooking the Sydney Harbour. It was my first time and I must say I loved the experience. I had a great time with the ladies sipping tea and a glass of champagne.
Merienda in Spanish is tea time. It’s a meal we have after lunch or afternoon in which we drink tea or coffee, with sweets, bread and butter or marmalade.
Anyways, let’s get to our Hola Tuesday Spanish lesson. Today I have a few questions for you:
¿Sabes esquiar? – ¿Conoces España?
Do you know how to sky? – Do you know Spain/have you been to Spain?
Today we’re going to have a look at the difference between ‘Saber’ and ‘Conocer’. Both verbs mean ‘to know’ in English and just like in the case of ‘Ser’ and ‘Estar’ (both mean ‘to be’ check our blog here for more), we have to learn when we use one verb and when we use the other.
Let’s start by conjugating these verbs in the present tense:
Both are irregular for the first person ‘yo’ and regular for the other personal pronouns.
Conocer:
Yo conozco
Tú conoces
Él/ella conoce
Nosotros conocemos
vosotros conocéis
Ustedes conocen
Ellos/ellas conocen
Saber:
Yo sé
Tú sabes
Él/ella sabe
Nosotros sabemos
vosotros sabéis
Ustedes saben
Ellos/ellas saben
We use CONOCER for people and places. So, when you want to say you know a person or you’ve been to a place, we use ‘conocer’ and not ‘saber’. Por ejemplo: ¿Conoces Barcelona? Here the question is similar to “¿Has estado/visitado Barcelona?” Have you been to Barcelona? An example with people: ¿Conoces a Roberto? Do you know Roberto? here as Roberto is a person, we need to use the verb ‘conocer’. Pay attention also that we need to add the preposition ‘a’ between the verb and the direct object (conocer and Roberto in this case) because the direct object is a person here. What do we mean by places? a place could be a restaurant, country, city, library, station, house, etc. Basically any physical space. Using the verb ‘saber’ in these examples would be incorrect.
We use SABER for general knowledge, information and skills. So when you want to talk about general information or abilities we’ll use the verb ‘saber’ and not ‘conocer’. Por ejemplo: ¿Sabes el teléfono de Ana? ¿Sabes nadar? ¿Sabes qué día es hoy? Do you know Ana’s phone number? Do you know how to swim? Do you know what day is it today? Anything that implied knowledge or information we’ll use the verb ‘saber’ and not ‘conocer’.
Can you see the difference here in these 2 questions?
1: ¿Conoces la casa de Juan?
2:¿Sabes la dirección de la casa de Juan?
In both instances, we’re talking about Juan’s house. But in number 1, I’m asking you if you’ve been to his place. Do you know his house? Have you ever been at his place? whereas in example number 2, I’m asking if you have his home address, we can say that’s general information about Juan’s house. We’re not asking if you know or have been to the place (the house) itself, but rather information about its location which is general knowledge.
What the full video explanation below:
I hope the difference is clear for you. Now we would love to hear from you ¿Qué países conoces? ¿Qué habilidades sabes? Comment your answers below.
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I will see you next week ¡Adiós! ¡Hasta luego!