Saber and Entender: To know and understand in Spanish

Hello everyone! And welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish!

Today bring you the word saber and the word entender. 

Here are the translations:

Saber (sah-behr) To Know

Entender (Ehn-tehn-dehr) To understand

These two verbs resemble each other in the sense that they both mean that you have the knowledge of something. Their use is pretty much the same as their English translations, but in Spanish, sometimes (at least here in Puerto Rico) we use the word saber where normally in English you would use the word endender.

For example, you can say 'Yo sé' or 'I know' in a case where normally you would use 'Yo entiendo' or 'I understand'.

Here are some useful forms or conjugations:

(Yo) sé - I know

*I wrote 'yo' (I) in parenthesis because, depending on context, it will be understood that you mean yourself, since this form of verbs is only used for when you are talking about yourself. By the way, the word 'understood' translates to 'Endendido' (En-ten-dee-doh); It will be understood - Será entendido, or, quedará entendido.

Yo sabía - I knew

Yo sabré - I'll know

Tú sabes - You know

Tú sabías - You knew

Tú sabrás - You will know

Ella/Él sabe - She/he knows

Ella/Él sabían - She/he knew

Ella/Él sabrán - She/he will know

Ellos/Ellas saben - They know

Ellos Ellas sabían - They knew

Ellos Ellas sabrán - They will know

*Remember, 'ellos' is used when there are two or more people together, and they  are either all male, or there's at least one man in the group. That's how it is. 'Ellas' is when there are more than one woman, but only women are in the group.

Ustedes saben - you know

Ustedes sabían - You knew

Ustedes sabrán - You will know

*'Ustedes' is when you are referring to two or more people; a group of people. Think of it as the plural of 'you'.

(Yo) entiendo - I understand

Yo entendí - I understood

Yo entenderé - I will understand

Tú entiendes - You understand

Tú entendiste - You understood

Tú entenderás - You will understand

Ella/Él entiende - She he understands

Ella/Él entendió - She he understood

Ella/Él entenderá - She he will understand

Ellos/Ellas entienden - They understand

Ellos/Ellas entendieron - They understood

Ellos/Ellas entenderán - They will understand

Ustedes entienden - You understand

Ustedes entendieron - You understood

Ustedes entenderán - You will understand

Here are some example phrases:

1- Yo sé lo que tengo que hacer - I know what I have to do

2- ¿Tú sabes la hora? - Do you know the hour?

3- Yo sé eso - I know that/I understand that

4- Yo entiendo que debes cambiar esa camisa - I understand you should change that shirt

5- ¿Tú entiendes esa teoría? - Do you understand that theory?

6- Él sabe tejer - He knows how to knit

7- ¿Ustedes entienden cómo hacer eso? - Do you understand/know how to do that?

8- Ellos saben que no funcionará - They know it won't work

9- Entiendo - I understand

10- Ella no entiende que el tiempo es corto - She doesn't understand that time is short

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This is it for today. I hope you could entender (understand) and that you find this useful. Any doubt, you can find me on Twitter or Facebook.
Thank you for reading!

Until next time!