angiescarr

I'm sure you're right but how do you differentiate with a cup of coffee warm or hot? Templado seems to be a positive so what do you say when your coffee isn't hot enough?

jimenato

Not just people.

Rosemary

You are right it is not just people.

Conocer is to have familiarity with, or to be acquainted with a person, place or ideas whilst Saber is to have knowledge of, to possess a command of facts or a body of information.

I used to be paranoid because having a conversation with one of my neighbours was difficult due to her saying sabes every few words and I thought that she was overdoing her checking my understanding. However, I listened in on a few of her conversations with others and discovered that it is one of her little quirks so I relaxed more when talking with her.

Rosemary

angiescarr

So, is ?sabes? just about interchangeable with ?entiendes? in that context Rosemary?
Oh my common mistake of using both question marks the 'right way up' is just lazy English keyboard use.

Rosemary

No, it is the fact that she is in the habit of saying "you know" within everything that she says and initially I thought that entiendes and sabes were interchangeable due to that. I cannot think of other examples at the moment but there have been quite a few similar incidents over the years whereby I have been confused in this way. Before you say it, yes I am easily confused.

One good one was when a couple of my friends and I went to the casita for a meal with all of their families. Beforehand I was asked if there was any food that I particularly wanted to which I responded that anything was fine apart from shellfish as I am allergic. Initially they thought that I had said that I am allergic to everything except shellfish, gave us all a laugh.

Rosemary

cricketman

Warm and hot are English languae terms, as you know many things do not translate directly

If your coffee isnt hot enough then yes you would say "esta templado, no esta lo bastante caliente"

cricketman

Yes although somewhat confusingly, conocimiento = knowledge while sabiduria = wisdom

Like anything, exposure to language solves all these problems. Stop listening to and speaking English for a couple of months and it will all fall into place

angiescarr

are you sure about the 'lo' here? Because if you are I've learned something new today and can you give me a couple more examples that use lo in this way?

pwwm

cricketman

Yes. You can use "lo" in all kinds of ways. I think they call it the "indefinite article" although I am never 100% sure of the terminology. Some examples:

"Bastante" = quite
"Lo bastante" = enough

You can also use "lo" alongside "que" to mean "what"
"Es lo que querria" = That is what I wanted

And you can also use "lo" to mean "thing"
"Lo más importante" = The most important thing
"Lo que sí es importante es" = What is important is..

Rosemary

Totally agree with that. I do not know any English people and do not have English television. My previous comments are about experiences from a few years ago. All of the people in my town speak Valenciano as their first language so they have to switch to Spanish when talking with me.

Rosemary