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La reina conoció al consejero en el castillo.

La reina conoció al consejero en el castillo.
The queen met the counselor at the castle.
From Lesson 256:Meaning changes in the preterite vs. imperfect·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La reina conoció al consejero en el castillo.

Why does conoció mean "met" here, rather than "knew"?
This is because conocer shifts its meaning depending on the past tense you use. In the imperfect tense (conocía), it means "knew" (an ongoing state of knowing someone). In the preterite tense (conoció), which we use here for a completed action, it means "met" (the exact moment of getting to know someone for the first time).
Why is it al consejero instead of just el consejero?
The al is a contraction of the preposition a and the article el. Spanish requires the "personal a" when the direct object of a verb is a specific person. Since the counselor is a person receiving the action of being met, we must add a, which merges with el to become al.
Could I use encontró to say she "met" him?
Not if you mean they were introduced. Conoció specifically means she met him for the first time. If you use encontró a or se encontró con, it means she "ran into" or "met up with" a counselor she already knew.
The English translation says "at the castle", but the Spanish uses en. Doesn't en mean "in"?
Yes, but en is very versatile and translates to "in", "on", or "at" depending on the context. Spanish doesn't usually make a strict distinction between being "inside" a building or just "at" a location, so en el castillo naturally covers both.

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