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- Topic: Italian >
- "We know little about him."
"We know little about him."
Translation:Sappiamo poco di lui.
40 Comments
Is this "sappiamo" instead of "conosciamo" because it implies we do not know enough information about him?
I think it's the difference between knowing him personally (conoscere) and knowing information about him (sappere). I don't think it's a matter of amount of knowledge; it's more about the type of knowledge.
This also happens in German: "wissen" = to know information, "kennen" = to know a person.
The more you know!
Huh, I wonder if that's related to the old-fashioned English "ken" meaning "to understand" e.g. "this is beyond my ken"..?
The website I linked at the bottom describes the difference between sapere and conoscere very well. While both mean "to know" something, it refers to different types of knowledge. Sapere is to know facts and skills whereas conoscere is to know people, places and things. I'm an english speaker married to an Italian and I have confirmed it with my husband. I hope this helps! http://robinonawire.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/difference-between-sapere-conoscere-both-mean-to-know-present-tense/
I see that you're studying Spanish as well (or at least I assume that's what the red/yellow/red circle means). I don't know if this will help, but these verbs are equivalent to the Spanish "saber" versus "conocer" for "to know".
Po' is an adjective. It has to be describing a noun. In this case, you are describing a verb, which calls for an adverb.
Are you sure about that? My understanding is that poco can be used as an adverb, adjective, or noun.
"Un po'" means "a little" (=some), while "poco" means "little" (=not much).
I find it very hard to find out if I have to use di or da. Can someonr explain this please?
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"circa" is "about" in the sense of "approximately", not in the sense of regarding something. So you can have "circa dieci minuti" = "about/approximately ten minutes", but not "leggo circa il gatto" = "I read about/approximately the cat".
I remember the sentence "leggiamo su di lei" with "su di = about". So why do we have just "di" as "about" ?!!
That means knowing a person personally, as opposed to knowing a fact (sapere).
Could you say: "Sappiamo un poco di lui" - so it is 'a little' instead of 'little' - which in English means practically the same thing?
Why is "su di lui" rejected ? I thought this was a correct and more common expression than just "di lui" in this context.
I think "piccolo" means "little / small" in the sense of size, not amount, whereas "poco" means "a little" in terms of quantity or amount. Your sentence would be more like "we know small of him" which doesn't make sense.
- 1593
I think its because "sappiamo piccolo del lui" , translates as "we know little of the him", hence di is needed, not del.
i thought one uses "Sapere" if the subject knows a fact or a skill.
yeah that's right.......i said one
The correct answer is: Conosciamo. Conoscere = to know a person, to be familiar with a person, to be acquainted with/to meet a person. Sapere = to know a fact, to know how to do something.
It is grammatically correct, and it is normally used when you want to stress the fact that it is "us" who know little about him. For example, if I say "noi sappiamo poco di lui, voi ne sapete di più": "we know little about him, you know more".
