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For those of you who know spanish, can you help me out here for a second? Since Spanish has two verbs for to know (saber and conocer), would the Swedish verb känner be used like the verb conocer, or can it have the meaning of both saber and conocer?
I am not a native speaker of either languages so from my understanding, the Spanish verb "saber" and the Swedish verb "veta" both mean 'to know a fact or have knowledge of something' whereas the verbs "conocer" and "känna" are used to describe knowing someone.
Native speakers or fluent speakers please correct me if I am mistaken.
Italian's got the same difference here, where sapere goes with saber and veta, and conoscere with conocer and 'känna. They generally are very distinct verbs, but you can sometimes use either of them: in example, if you are translating I know the answer in italian they are both good. is it the same for vet and 'känna or you can always use only one while the other is wrong?
I don't know any European language -- other than English -- that doesn't distinguish the two different meanings with two different verbs. For example:
Jag vet ditt namn --- Jag känner din pappa
Je sais ton nom --- Je connais ton père
Sé tu nombre --- Conozco a tu padre
Dw i'n gwybod dy enw --- Dw i'n nabod dy dad
Ich weiß deinen Namen --- Ich kenne deinen Vater
Ik weet je naam --- Ik ken je vader
English is very much the odd-one-out in this matter!
In germany you would either say "ich kenne deinen namen" or "ich weiß nicht, wie du heißt". (Literally: "I dont know how you are called.") Your point still holds as its 1) perfectly understandable and 2) probably just an unfortunate example.
Thanks! As you can see, my grasp of German is not that great -- although I thought you could say things like "Ich weiß deinen Namen, dein Alter... wo du arbeitest, was du tust" -- the distinction feeling, to me, like that between "I know what your name is" (Ich weiß deinen Namen) and "I'm familiar with your name" (Ich kenne deinen Namen). But then, as I say, I'm no expert in German!
I'll also add a Tagalog example.
'Alam' means 'to know a piece of information'. 'Kilala' means 'to know someone'
there's another comment explaining it here. vet is used for knowledge of things: jag vet svenska for instance. It relates to the spanish verb saber and the italian verb sapere. känner instead is used for people: like in this exercise, kvinnan 'känner mannen and not kvinnan vet mannen because the man is a physical person. in spanish this translates as conocer, in italian as conoscere.
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No no, you don't use vet with languages or words! Jag kan svenska 'I know Swedish' and jag kan ett ord 'I know a word'.
vet is used for the knowledge of facts, like jag vet vem han är 'I know who he is'.
You're right that känner is the word used for knowing people.
Why is "The womans feels the man" wrong? I mean.. it could mean that doesn't it?
It doesn't convey the same thing in English as it's meant in the Swedish sentence. You could use feel as in "to feel for", like I feel for you man; the woman feels the man would mean she feels the touch of the man. I don't think the Swedish verb has the double meaning that the English one does.
a bit like French...Savoir..to know a fact, Connaitre...to know someone.
similar to German "kennen". "Get to know" is "kennenlernen" in German, but I wonder how that verb is in Swedish?
I think is like italian sapere = saber = veta and conoscere = conocer = känna
