when to use conocer or concerse?
Hi I want to say that "I dont know who you are" and I am not sure whether to use "conocer" or "conocerse" i.e. "no conozco quien eres" or "no me conozco quien eres". From what I understand you use "conocerse" if you are talking about 2 or more people and that "no conozco quien eres" is correct but I am not 100% positive so if anyone could help me out that would be great. Thanks!
3 Answers
Hi alanreen,
I'm Spanish and I would say "No sé quien eres" o "No te conozco".
I hope it helps you,
Miguel
When the subject and the object of the verb are the same *(conocerse) and there are 2 or more people involved, then you'll translate se / nos / vos (or whatever) as each other. If only one person, then se (or te, me, or whatever) will translate as myself, yourself, himself, etc.
Me conozco = I know myself
Se conoce = He knows himself
Se conocen = They meet each other / They get to know each other / They know each other
Nos conocemos = We meet each other / We are getting to know each other / We know each other
Conocer (without the se) is for when the subject and object are different. So, yes, it's conocer for I don't know who you are (no conozco que eres / no te conozco). Although, in most cases, you'd probably usually use the usted form (no conozco que es or no lo conozco), just to be polite to a stranger. However, there can certainly be situations where you'd use the tú form on a stranger.
There is also the phrase se conoce que (It is known that...???) which is used to mean "Apparently..."
Conocer means "to know" in the sense of knowing a person. I would use the first person, present tense form of conocer (conozco) for this.
My choice is "no conozco quien eres"
