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- "I know the women."
"I know the women."
Translation:Conosco le donne.
20 Comments
A useful link I found on the difference between the two verbs for "to know" in Italian: http://robinonawire.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/difference-between-sapere-conoscere-both-mean-to-know-present-tense/
1302
I put 'So le donne' too and was marked incorrect. Seresam has answered that you can only use conoscere for people but in an earlier part of this section sapere was used with people - 'You know how boys are' was translated as 'Sai come sono I ragazzi'. Can anyone help me?
460
Sapere is to know whereas conoscere means to really ( i.e. a person). French is similar with savior and connaître). So if you have just met a woman, you might say "Io so la donna.". But if you have known the while for quite a while, it's a close friend or family member, then you would say "Io conosco la donna." Duolingo doesn't really seem to teach this (thank goodness I learned it in another language). Spanish and Portuguese do something similar.
This feels misleading. It would seem to me both "So le donne" and "Conosco le donne" are valid, just with different meanings. "I know the women. We grew up in the same town and went to college together" — that's a common kind of "know"ing people, and that would be "conosco". But "I know the women. They have off-shore banking accounts where they hide their money" is a different kind of "know", and that feels closer to the intent of "so" — I don't know them personally, rather I know some salient facts about them. @maja280120 posted this useful link about the difference: https://advanceditaliano.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/difference-between-sapere-conoscere-both-mean-to-know-present-tense/