LES or SEPAN

[hola]

how do you correctly say I DON'T WANT THEM TO KNOW I SPEAK SPANISH

i said it was NO LES QUIERO SABER QUE YO SE ESPANOL

i asked a spanish woman on the street and she said i was wrong

she said it's NO QUIERO QUE SEPAN QUE YO HABLO ESPANOL

who is right?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

She is right, hola. "No quiero que sepan que hablo/sé español" is the correct one.

No les quiero decir que sé/hablo español.
I don't want to tell them I speak Spanish.

[CrOtALiTo]

The second one is right.

[hola]

so what does NO LES QUIERO SABER QUE YO SE ESPANOL mean?

this is what i usually say and it's what i meant to say to the girl

the ending is irrelevant (....QUE YO SE ESPANOL/QUE YO HABLO ESPANOL)

it's the beginning that i am questioning

i believe it's NO LES QUIERO SABER

she said it's NO QUIERO QUE SEPAN

who is right when it comes to the first half of the sentence?

[irmamar]

'No les quiero saber means nothing' = yo no quiero saber a ustedes (les) The best construction would be: yo no quiero que ustedes sepan...

You can use "les" with another verb, for instance:

No les dije a ustedes que yo sabía español.

[pjt33]

Escrito originalmente por irmamar

'No les quiero saber means nothing' = yo no quiero saber a ustedes ellos (les) The best construction would be: yo no quiero que ustedes ellos sepan...

They, not you.

Hola, to say this properly requires some advanced verb conjugation: the subjunctive mood. It's often confused with a tense by English speakers who don't think that English has a subjunctive, but actually moods are separate from tenses.

Tense is about when: distant past, recent past, present, future, etc. Mood is (vaguely!) about the reality of the action expressed in the verb. You're probably familiar with three moods from English: the indicative (default: simple statement of fact); conditional (statement hypothecated on another); imperative (command to make the statement true). (Some people classify the infinitive as a mood too, but that's arguable).

The subjunctive mood indicates hypothetical or untrue statements. It exists in English, but most native speakers are unaware of it. Sample usages:

If I were you, I would ... (hypothetical in subjunctive, statement hypothecated on it in conditional; this carries over into Spanish as imperfect subjunctive + present conditional; or pluperfect subjunctive + imperfect conditional).
God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen (expression of desire rather than statement of fact; in some sense, you could argue that the first one at least is a 3rd person imperative, and again this carries over: imperatives other than tú and vosotros in Spanish use the subjunctive).

Here you're saying "I don't want them to know that I speak Spanish"; in English it appears to use an infinitive, but you can recast it (somewhat unnaturally) as "I don't want that they know that I speak Spanish". Since it's an expression of desire rather than a statement of fact it requires the subjunctive.

It is impossible to speak fluent Spanish without the subjunctive, but I don't know what your level is. If you're still learning the tenses in the indicative then maybe you should focus on that first. I know that my teachers didn't mention the subjunctive until I'd been studying Spanish for nearly three years (and I never learnt it in French, despite studying that for five).


PD Irma, "no quiero saber a ellos" sería "I don't want to taste like them", ¿no?

[Elaina]

LES ...... SEPAN

I can only think of this sentence with the word ... LES...

-No quiero darles a saber que hablo español.
-No quiero que sepan que hablo español.

they are both correct.

[irmamar]

Sorry, I didn't realize of that "them".

[chileno]

Escrito originalmente por Elaina

LES ...... SEPAN

I can only think of this sentence with the word ... LES...

-No quiero darles a saber que hablo español.
-No quiero que sepan que hablo español.

they are both correct.

Excelente!

La primera opción también podría decirse: No les quiero hacer saber que hablo español.

[hola]

pjt33's explanation was excellent
i really appreciate her taking the time to analyze it

but you know what?
i don't care what nobody says
i still do not see why or where "NO LES QUIERO SABER....." is wrong

in spanish the nouns are placed before the verbs
i have done that
i have also conjugated

i am sorry i don't see how these 2 sentences are different
i don't see where or how mine is wrong

NO LES QUIERO SABER QUE YO SE ESPANOL
NO QUIERO QUE SEPAN QUE YO SE ESPANOL

they both say i don't want them to know i speak spanish

how and where does mine NOT say it???