Spanish has two different verbs to express the idea of knowing—saber and conocer. Each verb has particular uses. The verb saber is used to express when you know how to do something, like skiing or skating, and, in this case, is used with the infinitive:
 ¿Tú sabes esquiar? |
Foto: isafmedia CC BY 2.0 |
Saber is also used in terms of knowing information—where something is, who someone is, when something takes place, etc.
| Muchas personas saben quién es Fidel Castro. |
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Foto: Alfredo Gayou CC BY 2.0 |
| Manuel sabe que no tengo hijos. |
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Foto: Teo Ruiz CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Cononcer on the other hand expresses knowing someone or someplace in terms of having had direct experience. In other words, if you use conocer when talking about another person, you are indicating that you are actually acquainted with him or her. When you use conocer with a place, like a city or a restaurant, you are expressing that you have physically been there and are familiar with it.
| ¿Conoces a Pablo? |
Foto: Ed Schipul CC BY-SA 2.0 |
| Conozco a muchas personas en Pittsburgh. |
One very important thing that you may have observed in the above examples is that if you are using conocer with a person or people, you must follow the verb with a; however, you do NOT use the a when you are talking about a place.
Below you will see the conjugations of these verbs. As you will notice, both verbs have a slightly irregular form in the first person singular.
| saber – to know (tiempo presente) | ||||||||||||
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| conocer – to know (tiempo presente) | ||||||||||||
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Let’s consider a few more examples.
| Manuel | ¿Ustedes conocen a Joaquín? | |
| Manolo | No, pero conocemos a sus padres.
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| Vanesa | ¿Tú conoces Bogotá?
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| Mateo | No, pero sé dónde está. |
| Marta | ¿Usted conoce un buen restaurante cubano?
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| Fausto | Sí, conozco uno que está en la esquina, al lado de la biblioteca pública. |
| Inés | ¿Sabes cocinar bien? | |
| Hector | Sí, sé cocinar comida española y mexicana muy bien.
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| Cristina | ¿Ustedes saben si hay un hotel cerca?
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| Humberto | No, no sabemos. |
Perhaps we can sum up the difference between the two verbs in the following way: Saber is used to express when you know how to do something or when you know something factualsome piece of information. Conocer, on the other hand, is experiential; you know a person or place in terms of the first hand experience of having met and become acquainted with a person or having actually been to a country, city, restaurant, or store.
Practice the following verbs: Saber and Conocer with the video below.
Candela Citations
- Lesson 7: Estructuras gramaticales . Authored by: Open Learning Initiative. Provided by: Carnegie Mellon. Located at: https://oli.cmu.edu/jcourse/lms/students/syllabus.do?section=037856eb80020ca6007833f93f06cd13. Project: Spanish1. License: CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
- 02 Spanish Lesson - Saber vs Conocer. Authored by: Senor Jordan. Located at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjcLJDIgTV8. License: Public Domain: No Known Copyright
