Questions & Answers about El niño no sabe escribir.
Why is there no word for "how to" in the Spanish sentence?
In Spanish, when you want to say that someone knows how to do a skill, you just use the verb saber (to know) right next to the infinitive (unconjugated) action word. You don't add words for "how to". So, sabe escribir simply means "knows how to write". Could I use conoce instead of sabe to say "knows"?
No, because Spanish has two verbs for "to know". You must use saber (here as sabe) for facts, information, and knowing how to do a skill like writing. The other verb, conocer, is used for being familiar with a person, place, or thing. Why does the word no go before sabe?
To make a sentence negative in Spanish, you put the negative word no directly before the main conjugated verb. It might feel backward compared to English's "doesn't know", but no sabe is the required order in Spanish. Does el niño translate to "the boy" or "the child"?
It can be either! El niño literally means "the boy", but Spanish often uses the masculine form to mean "the child" in a general sense. If the child were specifically a girl, you would use la niña. Learn El niño no sabe escribir and more in Spanish
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