Focused learning guide
Saber vs conocer: facts, skills and familiarity
Choose Spanish saber or conocer for facts, learned skills, personal familiarity and past-tense meaning shifts without relying on one English verb.
Use saber for facts, information and knowing how to do something; use conocer for familiarity with people, places and things.
Information and skills use saber
Sé la respuesta means I know the answer. Sé nadar means I know how to swim; Spanish uses saber plus infinitive without a word equivalent to “how.”
Familiarity uses conocer
Conozco Madrid means I know or am familiar with Madrid. Conozco a Lucía uses the personal a because Lucía is a specific person.
Meaning shifts in the past
In the preterite, supe often means found out, while conocí can mean met for the first time. The imperfect describes an existing state of knowledge or familiarity.
Questions learners ask
Frequently asked questions
Can I conocer a fact?
Normally facts take saber, while subjects, works or places can take conocer as familiarity.
Does saber que need the indicative?
Affirmative knowledge normally introduces an asserted fact with indicative; negation and doubt can change mood.
Is conocer irregular?
Its present first person is conozco.