Conocer vs Saber
Can anyone explain to me the difference between conocer and saber - when you would use one over the other and in what context? I'm picking them at random at the moment and it seems to be wrong each time! Hope you can help.
6 Answers
Both mean "to know", but if you look them up in the dictionary you'll see that each has different nuances. Explaining them all in a post would be overkill.
Just a few examples (but it doesn't mean that you can't use the alternative in some cases):
"Conozco a esa persona" (this one is a no brainer: whenever you say that you know someone: conocer)
"No conocía ese suceso"
"Conozco esa mirada"
"No sabes lo que hay que hacer"
"Sabe mucho de matemáticas"
"Sabía que se nos había olvidado algo"
"¿Sabes lo que ha pasado?"
If I may add something, all explanations will be a WASTE OF TIME. These things happen when you learn languages. Suddenly, where you use one verb, you need 30 in another language, and you think they are making things difficult for you. But then, when someone takes a verb in your language and he/she needs 30 verbs in his/her language, you think his/her language is crazy.
People who are fluent in English as a second language can rarely explain how they speak or why. If you ask them why you use this verb but not that, they'll say "Dunno, because it sounds better", like a native. There you go! Natives and fluent foreigners don't know these rules. We learn them, painfully, slowly,... after we speak the language without knowing how. My advice? Listen, read, memorize, imitate,... and forget about silly rules; people who speak fluently rarely know these rules, and a lot of people who have memorized these rules are rarely fluent.
If you have never thought about your language, maybe you should. The simplest sentence you utter everyday can become a deep linguistic problem that needs analysing, and if you use "Grammar rules" for foreigners to decide how to speak, you'll end up stuck trying to decide how to say "hello" in the right tense and conjugation. Forget grammars!
ok, so there are three rules for each. Saber- 1. to know a fact 2. to have info about something 3. to know how to do something.
for conocer- 4. to know a person 5. to know a place 6. to be familiar with a concept or idea.
these rules also apply for the opposite. saber- 1. not to know a fact 2. not have info about something 3. not know how to do something. conocer- 4. not know a person 5. not to know a place 6. not to know an idea.
Of course, they overlap and sometimes it's a question of choice, but in very broad strokes, just to get a general idea, conocer means 'to be acquainted with' and saber is used in the context of knowing something, having information about it. So, often, you conocer people and saber facts. But you could be familiar/acquainted with an idea or a concept, so you definitely don't want to rely on that indicator alone. A dictionary is often helpful when you're getting your footing with the whole saber/conocer distinction, as a good one will have many examples and tell you when to use each.
These two verbs are just as confusing as ser and estar and it is hard to make the choice. I have printed out lessons from various sources and studyspanish.com is close to the best plus my new book "Breaking Out of Beginner's Spanish".
Rule of thumb: use conocer for proper nouns and all specific people, places, and things and use saber for everything else. Conocer "Do you know Paris?"; Conocer "Do you know that lady on the street who sells flowers?" Conocer "Do you know the French Quarter?" Saber "Do you know what flowers the lady sells?" Saber "Do you know what she's saying about you?"
Conocer also means "to meet" but keep in mind it is meeting for the first time only! Use encontrar for chance encounters.
