Spanish Learning Resources

The verbs Conocer and Saber in Spanish frequently confuse English speakers since they both mean To Know. However, these verbs are NOT interchangeable since they have different meanings and are used depending on the context.

Look in just about any good Spanish or Spanish-English dictionary, and verbs will be listed as either transitive (verbo transitivo, often abbreviated in dictionaries as vt or tr) or intransitive (verbo intransitivo, often abbreviated to vi or int). These designations can give you an important clue as to how the verb is used in sentences.

Frequently, the conditional is used to express probability, possibility, wonder or conjecture, and is usually translated as would, could, must have or probably.

• The student said that he would study one more hour. (probability, possibility)
• What time could it have been? (wonder, conjecture)
• He must have been at home. (wonder, conjecture)
• We were probably busy when you called. (probability, possibility)

Note: when would is used in the sense of a repeated action in the past, the imperfect is used.

In Spanish there are plenty of words with multiple meanings, and often radically different ones! Here’s a list we compiled of some of the most commonly used words that can be used in different ways:

 TO ASK

To ask for something: pedir.

  Cuando Antonio tiene sed, siempre pide una cerveza bien fría. 

  El presidente va a pedir al Congreso que aprueben la propuesta. 

To ask for information: preguntar.

  Mi marido siempre me pregunta cuándo voy a llegar a casa. 

To ask about or for someone: preguntar por.

Leísmo ("using le") is a dialectal variation in the Spanish language that occurs largely in Spain. It involves using the indirect object pronoun le in place of the (standard) masculine direct object pronoun lo, especially when the direct object refers to a male person.

How does one say "for" in Spanish?
Simple question, huh?
Not really. In fact, understanding the answer to that seemingly simple question is one of the more difficult problems facing many Spanish students.

•   Por que can be the union of the preposition por and the pronoun que.

La carretera por que pasamos siempre hoy está cortada.

(= La carretera por la que pasamos siempre hoy está cortada.)

La chica por que preguntas se llama Luisa.

(= La chica por la que preguntas se llama Luisa.) 

Te diré el motivo por que se fue.

 VERBS WITH PROPER IRREGULARITY

In Spanish there are many irregular verbs, but most of them are not used or are unknown from Spanish people. For foreigners, verbs are a particularly difficult, both because of irregularities in verbs itself and for the use of them.