Breakdown of Sabíamos del complot, pero supimos el secreto ayer.
de
from / of
pero
but
el secreto
the secret
saber
to know (facts) / to hear from (someone)
ayer
yesterday
el complot
the plot
Questions & Answers about Sabíamos del complot, pero supimos el secreto ayer.
Why does the meaning of the verb change from 'knew' to 'found out'?
This is the core difference between the imperfect and preterite forms of the verb saber. The imperfect form sabíamos describes an ongoing mental state in the past, meaning we already held the knowledge ('we knew'). The preterite form supimos describes an action with a clear beginning or the exact moment that knowledge was acquired, which translates to 'we found out' or 'we learned'.
Why does the sentence use del complot instead of sobre el complot for 'about the plot'?
In Spanish, the verb saber is most frequently paired with the preposition de to mean 'to know about' or 'to hear about' something. Because the preposition de and the masculine article el always combine into the contraction del, we get del complot. You could technically say sobre el, but del is much more common and natural in everyday Spanish.
Could we use conocíamos instead of sabíamos in the first part?
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