Breakdown of El rey sabía el secreto de la corona.
de
from / of
el secreto
the secret
saber
to know (facts) / to hear from (someone)
el rey
king
Questions & Answers about El rey sabía el secreto de la corona.
Why is sabía used here instead of the preterite form supo?
In Spanish, mental verbs like saber (to know) shift their meaning slightly depending on whether you use the imperfect or preterite tense. The imperfect sabía means he already knew the secret—it was an ongoing state. If we used the preterite supo, it would mean he 'found out' or 'discovered' the secret at a specific moment in the past.
Could you use conocía instead of sabía since he 'knows' a secret?
I sometimes see de and el combine into del. Why doesn't that happen with de la?
The contraction del only happens when the preposition de is followed directly by the masculine singular article el (for example, el secreto del rey). It never combines with the feminine article la, the plural articles (los, las), or the pronoun él (he/him). So, de la corona must remain as three separate words.
Why does have an accent mark on the ?