Breakdown of ¿Sabes la respuesta del problema?
el problema
the problem
del
from the / of the
saber
to know (facts) / to hear from (someone)
la respuesta
the answer
Questions & Answers about ¿Sabes la respuesta del problema?
Why do we use "sabes" here instead of "conoces"?
In Spanish, there are two verbs for "to know". We use saber (here conjugated as sabes) for facts, information, or knowing how to do something. Since "the answer" is a piece of information, we use saber. The other verb, conocer, is used for being familiar with people, places, or complex things like books.
Why does it say "del problema" instead of "al problema" if the English translation is "to the problem"?
In English, we say the answer "to" a problem, but in Spanish, we say the answer "of" a problem (la respuesta del problema). Spanish uses de (of) here to show that the answer belongs to that specific problem. Prepositions often don't translate word-for-word between languages!
Where does the word "del" come from?
del is a mandatory combination of the preposition de (of) and the masculine "the" which is el. Whenever de and el are right next to each other, they smash together to become del. (Note: this does not happen with the pronoun él, meaning "he").
Wait, doesn't "problema" end in "a"? Why is it using the masculine "el" hidden inside "del"?
Yes, it ends in "a", but problema is actually a masculine word! Many Spanish words that end in -ma (like el problema, el idioma, el clima) originally came from Greek and kept their masculine gender. Because it is masculine, we use el problema, which gives us del problema.
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