¿ Que es más común para decir, manejar o conducir?

Question

¿Que es más común para dice , Conduzco mi coche para trabajar". O manejo mi coche a trabajar?

What is more common to say in Spanish , I drive ( manejar ) or conducir ?

Answer 1

Listening to my ESL students, I find that they use "manejar" almost exclusively. They are all from various places in Mexico. Of course, this is a small sample of people.

i have a lenguaje course which is from Mexico which uses manejar, that is why i was not sure . thank you so much. - ray76, May 4, 2012

Answer 2

This is how my experience has been with Spain Spanish...

I hear conducir much more on a daily basis. However, I have always thought of manejar as a different word, more like "operate." So I would say it is used in a more formal way, like when you take a medicine that says "don´t operate vehicles or heavy machinery." "No mantenga ningún vehículo..." etc.

Conducir I hear more often when saying stuff like "We're not flying to France; we're driving." Or "Thank you for driving me to work today." Or "I learned how to drive when I was 18" etc. I don´t hear manejar unless it is more in the context of "operating a vehicle," which is not said very often.

Thank you missy , I had a feeling that it was a Spain mainly thing but was not sure , great ! - ray76, May 4, 2012

I looked up "drive" on the translater here, and it said "manejar" is Latin American Spanish. - missy8888, May 4, 2012

That seams to be what I have found out also , thank you . - ray76, May 4, 2012