Conocer vs Saber

Yes. I've been to France, England, and Germany. Sí. Conozco Francia, Inglaterra, y Alemania. If I changed the conocer to saber, can I still use it with a different meaning like I know of France, England and Germany without ever going there? Sí. Yo se (with accent in e) Francia, Inglaterra, y Alemania. My friend Maria from El Salvador said that I cannot use saber for this sentence. She said I can use "I have read of.......or I have studied of....... but not saber. I only know that I can use conocer with people and countries and saber with others. Rich, what do you think? I ask so many questions that someday RS would limit me to 10 or less questions a month. I have already used up my quota.

Aurora, I think that Maria is correct. My understanding is that conocer is used to talk about knowing people, places, or things. We use saber to talk about information. The questions that you ask are likely to inform others as well as you. Or as others answer them or simply read the answers they might be reminded of information they know but have forgotten or are unclear about. I think this forum in which we can ask or talk about whatever we want is one of the great features of RS. I am glad that we don't have moderators who control what we say, and even more glad that we don't have the kind of people here who spoil a good thing and make moderators necessary. Feliz Año Nuevo, Dan

Aurora, the first thing I do in RS is check in on the forum to see if I can assist in answering some question. I look forward to that and I'm always a bit disappointed if there is nothing there I can respond to.

Yes, Aurora, I also think your friend is correct. It would not make sense to say that "I know England". Am I friends with England? I can say "I know things about England". Here Spanish provides two different verbs to say what in English would be "I know". Please keep asking questions. It gives the rest of us something to think about.

Hola Aurora, Conocer means to know in the sense of to be familiar or acquainted with. Saber is to know in the sense of to know a fact, to know something, or to know how to do something. I hope this helps and yes, please keep asking questions. Saludos, Ricardo

Saludos,

In este leccion (6.6), son dos frases
1:Conoces espana bien?
2:Concoes bien la ciudad?

Necesito entender por que la palabra "bien" esta al frente o despues el lugar?


Using the opportunity to practice my spanish, but basically i want to understand why the word "bien" goes before la ciudad , but after espana?

Grassias

PAtrick

It's the same.  Perhaps a distinction can be drawn in emphasis with the first example emphasizing the place while the second example emphasizes the knowing well the place in question.