Comprender vs entender

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo

People I have a question.

Someone mentioned before a words very weir for me, really it's weir because I didn't find any register about it, I have found the word in the internet and only I found a lot meanings that it really became me suck and it confusing me more than now.

The word is Drift, I guess that it mean Derivar.

I hope you can answer my question.

Beforehand I thanking your support.

Hey Crotalito! Can you supply the context you found "drift" used in? "Drift" and "derivar" do have some overlap in meaning but they also have distinct uses that aren't synonymous.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Cloudgazer: Take a look at the first pages of this topic, where Chileno asked "what was first, the chicken or the egg'", and by those days there was a thread specifically on that topic. The comment for that was that he had drifted to the wrong topic.


@Crotalito: Quiere decir "fuiste a dar al hilo equivocado". Puedes ver los varios significados de "derivar" en el DRAE.

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Cloudgazer: Take a look at the first pages of this topic, where Chileno asked "what was first, the chicken or the egg'", and by those days there was a thread specifically on that topic. The comment for that was that he had drifted to the wrong topic.

¡Ay! He vagado del rumbo apropiado... Lo entiendo y lo siento...ya vuelvo a, y me centro en, «comprender y entender». Gracias por el recuerdo amable.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Cloudgazer

I wanted to share that, for me, "understand" and "comprehend" are completely synonymous in the contexts Laepelba is using. I'd have to intentionally search for nuance if I was told there was a difference; that is, it wouldn't have come to me initially upon hearing those sentences.

I hear "comprehend" used less frequently than "understand" so, for me, it has more of a formal sound but no difference in meaning for the two contexts above.


For example,

I comprehend what you are saying.

would sound somewhat pretentious to my ears.


Also, for me,

She truly comprehends the gravity of her situation.

biases the profundity of the meaning associated with "comprehends" since "truly" and "gravity" lend, well, more gravity to the statement and to the activity of comprehending, but not to the basic meaning of "comprehends" itself.


Therefore, if I heard,

She truly understands the gravity of her situation.

I'd give as much weight to the "understanding/comprehension/awareness of" activity represented by "understands" as I do for "comprehends".


And it would initially sound like a contradiction to me if I heard,

I understand you but I don't comprehend you.

So would,

I comprehend you but I don't understand you.

I'd have to go to the next category of meaning for "comprehend", that of "including, comprising, embracing", or another category of meaning for "understand" such as "thoroughly familar with something and its subtleties" to make sense of these statements.


There is a meaning of "comprehend" in English which I think Irma's sentence

Te entiendo pero no te comprendo.

shows Spanish also shares in its verb "comprender". It is the idea of inclusion/containment which can be extended in many ways, physically, emotionally, etc. So the sentence

I understand you but I don't comprehend you.

might mean, among multiple interpretations in English, "I understand you but I don't share your views." or "I'm completely familiar with who you are but I don't get why you're that way."


In any case, "entender", "comprender", "understand", and "comprehend" are such great verbs!

Interesting ... and it's funny that your understanding of "comprehend" as being more formal. It's a VERY common word for a teacher (which I am), so it didn't occur to me that it might even sound a bit pretentious. It's part of my every day vocabulary, and has a deeper meaning (in my technical lingo) than "understand". LOL!

[Cloudgazer]

That is really interesting! I so enjoy the variations in language. Now that you've jogged my memory, I do associate "comprehend" with teacher/student discourse. In my experience of it, which has been fairly hierarchical and formal, a teacher's use of "comprehend" was not surprising nor taken as pretentious but more along the lines of authoritative. Outside that venue the use probably still brings a hierarchical register to the statement for me.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Interesting ... and it's funny that your understanding of "comprehend" as being more formal. It's a VERY common word for a teacher (which I am), so it didn't occur to me that it might even sound a bit pretentious. It's part of my every day vocabulary, and has a deeper meaning (in my technical lingo) than "understand". LOL!

Interesting. I think of "comprehension" as a perfectly normal noun to use in language lessons, but I can't recall ever hearing comprehend used in the obvious cognate sense.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Cloudgazer

That is really interesting! I so enjoy the variations in language. Now that you've jogged my memory, I do associate "comprehend" with teacher/student discourse. In my experience of it, which has been fairly hierarchical and formal, a teacher's use of "comprehend" was not surprising nor taken as pretentious but more along the lines of authoritative. Outside that venue the use probably still brings a hierarchical register to the statement for me.

The funniest thing is that your typical writing style is very academic and you use a lot of "big" vocabulary words well. Talk about "formal".

Originally Posted by pjt33

Interesting. I think of "comprehension" as a perfectly normal noun to use in language lessons, but I can't recall ever hearing comprehend used in the obvious cognate sense.

Yes, a very teacher-y term. "The student has exceptional reading comprehension." "The student's comprehension of abstract mathematical concepts is less than what it should be for her age level." Etc. We use the word ALL the time in situations where "understanding" would not be quite adequate...

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by laepelba

The funniest thing is that your typical writing style is very academic and you use a lot of "big" vocabulary words... Talk about "formal".

No doubt! I owe it all to my illustrious teachers

Originally Posted by laepelba

Yes, a very teacher-y term. "The student has exceptional reading comprehension." "The student's comprehension of abstract mathematical concepts is less than what it should be for her age level." Etc. We use the word ALL the time in situations where "understanding" would not be quite adequate...

Or maybe just not commonly used in those kinds of phrases?