Hallar VS. Enterar?

Question

They both mean "to find out"? What is the difference and what is up with Spanish having so many of the same verbs!!!! (mamar y chupar) (comenzar y empezar) (damnificar y lesionar) (mudar y mover). This is kind of pissing me off

careful ... mudar and mover are not synonyms! - pesta, Nov 2, 2011

Answer 1

Be careful, some of them are exactly the same in english...

start/begin, for example.

Now it is up to you to start discriminating between the different usages. It isn't that difficult, but you have to do it, if you want to learn.

Consider this:

Third day in my first job in this country (I am from Chile) and my boss comes in and says: "clean up the kitchen", and while my mind was racing thinking of where had I seen a ladder tall enough to reach the ceiling, I looked up, and he says "No, clean the kitchen" making a gesture with his hands as if he was cleaning one of the tables.

You see, I understood each the words he used to say "clean UP the kitchen"

On the third day at my first job ...my boss...while my mind was racing, wondering where I'd seen ...I 'look' up (if you have the rest of the actions in the sentence in the present tense then you need to keep them all there) Well done Chileno :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 3, 2011

my boss 'comes' in and 'says', I 'look' up, he 'says' etc or you could have them all in the past tense - my boss 'came' in and 'said', I 'looked' up, he 'said' etc but not a mixutre :) - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 3, 2011

Answer 2

Many languages have multiple words of the same meaning because they all borrow or originate from other languages. But not to worry. It´s better to be pissed off than pissed on.

:-) - chileno, Nov 2, 2011

haha, gracias amiga - danyxc, Nov 2, 2011

I think you'll find that Julian is an amigo je je - Kiwi-Girl, Nov 3, 2011

Answer 3

Hallar is very much like encontrar. Enterar is very much like averiguar. Our dictionary says hallar can be like averiguar, maybe, I haven't heard it used like that so I can't say.

Mamar is not like chupar, it's mostly idiomatic when I hear it (no mames guey, etc) (and for babies etc)

Comenzar and empezar are very much alike.

damnificar y lesionar - never heard of either of these, but there are about 100 words for damage it seems.

mudar y mover - these are not alike, they have many differences.

This is what Spanish is about. If you don't like tons of options with verbs etc.... you're in the wrong language.

Answer 4

All (natural) languages have synonyms (and "near synonyms" as well). On the whole, I believe that synonyms are more frequent/numerous in English than in Spanish (if for no other reason than that our unabridged dictionaries contain three/four times as many entries as theirs [and it is certainly not because there are ideas that can't be expressed in Spanish]).