Sapere VS Conoscere, two Italian verbs “to know” – PODCAST

TherearetwoimportantItalianverbsEnglishspeakerstendtoconfuse:”Sapere”and”Conoscere”.TheybothtranslateintoEnglishas”toknow”.Podcast. Inapreviouspost,aboutsome Italianverbsthatmystudentstendtomistake,Idedicatedafewwordsto sapereVSconoscere.Ithinkthetopicdeservessomemoreattention.Theconfusionisquitenormal,becausebothverbsapparentlytranslateinto”toknow”.Let’sfirstseeandlistentotheirconjugations.

ConoscereisaplainregularverbandSapereisirregular,butthedifferencesarenotonlyapparent.Althoughtheyseemtobeequivalent,inmanycasestheyarenotinterchangeableatall.Sometimes,theycanreplaceoneanotherbutgivethesentence adifferentperspective. Agoodruleofthumbforunderstandingthedifferent”depthofknowledge”,wecancomparethesetwoverbsto”tosee”and”towatch”,(orvedereandguardareinItalian)respectively,sapereandconoscere.Icanseesomethingbutitdoesn’tmeanIwatchedit.Possosapereunacosamanonèdettochelaconosca!

CONOSCERE

Wecanuseconoscere tosaythatweknowtheexistenceordetailsofthings,tobeacquaintedorfamiliarwithsomebodyorsomething.

  • ConoscoAndrea,èsimpatico.
  • ConosciunbuonristoranteaMilano?Iononne conosco.
  • Nonconoscoleregoledelbaseball

SAPERE

Saperemeanstobeawareofsomething,cometoknow,knowfacts(butnotnecessarilytheirdetails).Ontopofthis,sapereisamodalverb,andmeans “tobeableto”dosomething,soitsupportsaninfinitiveverb.”soguidarelamacchina”Icandriveacar,Iamcapableofdoingit.

  • HosaputocheMarioviveinAmerica.
  • Saidovesonolechiavi?Nonloso!
  • Hosaputochetisposi,auguri!

Ifoundanicesentence inwordreference.Tantisannol’italianomanontutti loconoscono.ManypeoplearefamiliarwiththeItalianlanguagebutnotasmany knowit.IhavethesameproblemwithEnglishsometimes,soanycorrectionisappreciated.Allaprossima!

 

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Riccardo
Milanese, graduated in Italian literature a long time ago, I began teaching Italian online in Japan back in 2003. I usually spend winter in Tokyo and go back to Italy when the cherry blossoms shed their petals. I do not use social media.

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Ivo Peshunov
Ivo Peshunov
9 years ago

Mi piacerebbe che lei spiegasse in italiano. Non conosco cosi bene l`inglese, credo sia un problema in comune.

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Danteadmin
Danteadmin
Reply to  Ivo Peshunov
9 years ago

A disposizione per qualsiasi tipo di chiarimento, Se ci sono domande in italiano, risponderò in italiano. Ciao.

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Marisa Franca Stewart
Marisa Franca Stewart
9 years ago

conoscere would translate in my mind to recognize versus sapere to intrinsically know.

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Danteadmin
Danteadmin
Reply to  Marisa Franca Stewart
9 years ago

Grazie Marisa, good point. Recognize is “riconoscere”. I like your translation of sapere

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