"I don't know you well."
Translation:Yo no te conozco bien.
34 Comments
How to you phrase this using the formal Vd please? It would seem logical that if you do not know someone well then you would use the polite form. I put "No se conozco bien" but it was wrong.
365
Se is a reflexive pronoun, for when someone is doing something to themselves. You need a normal 3rd-person object pronoun here:
No lo/la conozco bien (a usted).
- 1994
That is what I have been thinking, It should be formal when you don't know somebody well. No le conozco bien.
- 365
Le is an indirect object pronoun, but conocer is transitive, so you need direct objects, lo or la.
With usted... You say... No le conozco bien
But you can also say... No lo conozco bien... Talking to a man. No la conozco bien... Talking to a woman
usted is necessary? I wrote No le conozco bien, and marked wrong. I know I can not say no te conozco bien (this this was the correct solution) because obviously " I " am not talking to a person who I am familiar indicated by the original sentence.
- 365
Using le is improper here. It's an indirect object pronoun, but conocer uses direct objects. Lo or la should work here.
but te is indirect object pronoun as well, isn't it? why te is allowed but le is not?
- 365
Te is both the indirect and direct object pronoun.
All 1st and 2nd person object pronouns (me, te, nos, os) as well as se are used for either object type. Only the 3rd persons make a difference between direct (lo, la, los, las) and indirect (le, les) object pronouns.
this is confusing, but I think I start to understand a little after your explanation. If I say ""I give you to him". Dar, unlike conocer, asking for both IO and DO. I would have to say, ''le te doy"? does this sound a right sentence? this has overthrown my concept. I always thought, when singular second person as objective, who you are not familiar with, you use le plus usted. if you are familiar, you use te. thank you for your time, a lingot for you
- 365
When usted is the direct object of a sentence, you'll use lo and la as well, whichever is appropriate for that person's gender.
Your example sentence would be "Te le doy", but otherwise that's correct. (Se before 2nd-person pronouns before 1st-person before 3rd-person. That's the general order for object pronouns.)
A more true-to-life example might be traer, "to bring". You can bring someone (DO) to someone else (IO).
- Te la traigo. - I bring her to you.
- Te le traigo. - I bring you to her.
The gustar-like verbs only take indirect objects, so you will only see "le gusta", but not lo or la, for example.
- Le gusta esta música. - He/she/you like(s) this music.
And there are a couple of verbs that can take direct or indirect objects without change of meaning, like escuchar or ayudar:
- Lo/le tienes que ayudar. - You have to help him.
Can I also put "No lo conozco bien a usted." to distinguish between "you" and "him"?
I wrote "no usted conozco bien" and was marked wrong. If I don't know the person well, would I not use "usted?"
I think you would need to write "Yo no la conozco bien a usted" or "Yo no lo conozco bien a usted". Would someone please correct me if I am wrong?
- 66
Would "yo no conozco a usted bien" mean the same thing as "yo no lo conozco bien"?
From what I can make out, "la" or "lo" is required because you are using a pronoun, "usted". If you were using a name like "a Juan", I don't believe that you would use "lo".
"No la conozco bien" was accepted as correct Sept. 27, 2018, so maybe the folks at Duolingo fixed this. I assume "No lo conozco bien" will also be accepted, but I didn't try that one.
"Te"means "you" if I'm not mistaken. My question is why's it before ,conozco"
- 365
That's where you put object pronouns. If you have one of those, where a personal pronoun is the object of a verb, they go in front of the conjugated verb in Spanish in most cases.
- Te dibjuo. - I am drawing you.
I think i need to go to a school and learn all that inside stuff like this. I can see what you're saying. Being the jest is what I'm not getting. I hopethis makes sense
- 365
I'll try to explain a bit if you like.
In English, most sentences are formed pretty simply: the subject first, that's the person who's doing something. Then the verb, the action that's happening. And after that you have objects, the things or people that are influenced by the action. For example:
- John calls his mother.
"John" is the subject here because he's doing something. "Calls" is the action John is carrying out, and "his mother" is the object, being at the receiving end of the call.
This order is largely the same in Spanish as well:
- John llama a su madre.
Subject John, action llama, and object "su madre", plus personal a in this case.
The issue with the sentence above is that the object, the receiver of the action, is not a noun, though. It's not "I don't know the policeman" or "I don't know Catherine", but instead it's "I don't know you". Instead of a noun, a personal pronoun is used. In English, that's no problem, just replace the noun from earlier by the appropriate pronoun:
- John calls his mother. - John calls her.
Spanish makes things a bit more complicated, though, and requires that these personal pronouns are placed right in front of the verb instead:
- John llama a su madre. - John la llama.
I think an easy way is to memorise the 11 Spanish object pronouns (me, te, lo, la, le, nos, os, los, las, les, se) and if one of those comes up in a translation, remember that they only appear in front of the verb, in the vast majority of cases.
(Just be aware that la, los, and las are also used as noun articles, "the".)
Oh boy... Alright. My problem with this is that when i read for a long time, i read but don't take it in. I'm gonna go over this again though and it'll make more sense the more times a read it lol i really do appreciate it
The words in Spanish are so different. You have some sentences that go along with the English sentences and then not. I don't know when to change them from how they are in English.
Got this wrong trying to go with what sounded better, not the grammar. Yo no conozco te biein. Sounds better, but not accepted.
- 365
That sentence is grammatically wrong. Object pronouns cannot appear after a conjugated verb. It doesn't sound better either.
