5.4: Gramática Los verbos saber y conocer

Span 100: Elementary Spanish I Vivir en las Fronteras · LibreTexts

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    At the of this module, the students will be able to:
    1. Identify the present tense in Spanish
    2. Analyze the three differences between saber vs conocer in Spanish
    3. Conjugate the infinitives in the present tense
    4. Answer questions or write sentences in Spanish with the verbs saber y conocer

    There are two verbs in Spanish that translate “to know” in English, similar to what you have observed with the English verb “to be”. The two ways of knowing in Spanish are saber and conocer.

    Saber

    Irregular in the first person singular, regular in all other forms in the present tense..    		 Conocer
    Irregular in the first person singular, regular in all other forms in the present tense.
    sé conozco
    sabes conoces
    sabe conoce
    sabemos conocemos
    sabéis conocéis
    saben conocen

    The distinction is not so difficult to remember:

    Saber → to know a skill / how to do something, to be aware of some information, to have knowledge about some topic.

    Conocer → to know a person, to be familiar with who they are because of a previous physical encounter. Also to know a place because you have been there.

    Ejemplos:

    Saber
    Yo sé las tablas de multiplicación.     (I know the times tables.) Tú sabes hablar un poco de español. (You know how to speak a bit of Spanish.) Nosotros sabemos a qué hora es el partido de fútbol. (We know what time the soccer game is.) Ellos saben jugar dominó. (They know how to play dominoes.)

    Conocer Yo conozco a la presidenta de la universidad personalmente. (I know the president of the university.—personally, we’ve met) ¿Tú conoces la ciudad de Nueva York? (Do you know / are you familiar with the city of New York?)

    Saber y Conocer Ellos conocen un lugar donde las personas que saben jugar dominó van los domingos. (They know / are familiar with a place where the people who know how to play dominoes go on Sundays.)

    Contributors and Attributions

    • Gramática: Saber y conocer. Authored by: SUNY Oneonta with Lumen Learning. Provided by: SUNY Oneonta. License: CC BY: Attribution

    This page titled 5.4: Gramática Los verbos saber y conocer was last modified on Tue, 07 Nov 2023 06:34:14 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Erica Brown, Alejandra Escudero, María Cristina Montoya, and Elizabeth Small (OER SUNY) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.