zināt / pazīt / prast

Three Kinds of Knowing

Level 3

English know splits into three verbs: zināt for facts (Es zinu, kur viņš dzīvo), pazīt for people and places you are acquainted with (Es pazīstu Annu), and prast or mācēt for skills (Es protu peldēt).

How It Works

1. Zināt: facts and information. It often introduces a clause with ka or a question word (see indirect questions): Es zinu, ka viņa ir mājās. Vai tu zini, cik ir pulkstenis? Es nezinu viņa adresi.

2. Pazīt: people and familiar things.

  • to know someone: Vai tu pazīsti manu brāli?
  • to recognise: Es tevi uzreiz pazinu. (I recognised you straight away.)
  • to know a place well: Viņš labi pazīst Rīgu.

Related words are iepazīties (to get to know, to meet), as in Priecājos iepazīties! (Nice to meet you!), and pazīstams (familiar, an acquaintance).

3. Prast and mācēt: skills. The two mean nearly the same: Es protu peldēt and Es māku peldēt both mean I can swim. With languages: Vai jūs protat latviski? (Do you speak Latvian?)

Compare varēt, which means being able to right now: Es māku peldēt, bet šodien nevaru. (I know how to swim, but I can't today.)

Examples (6)

  1. Es nezinu, kur ir stacija.

    I don't know where the station is.

    A fact, so the verb is zināt.

  2. Vai tu pazīsti Annu?

    Do you know Anna?

    Knowing a person is pazīt.

  3. Es tevi uzreiz nepazinu.

    I didn't recognise you at first.

    Pazīt also means to recognise. Pazinu is its past tense.

  4. Mana meita jau prot lasīt.

    My daughter can already read.

    A skill, so the verb is prast with an infinitive.

  5. Vai tu māki braukt ar riteni?

    Can you ride a bike?

    Mācēt means the same as prast: to know how.

  6. Viņš prot trīs valodas.

    He speaks three languages.

    Word by Word: He knows three languages.

    Prast can take the name of a skill, such as a language.

Common Mistakes

  • Using zināt to ask whether someone knows a person.

    Vai tu zini manu brāli?
    Vai tu pazīsti manu brāli?

    Here the speaker wants to know whether you have met the brother, so the verb is pazīt. Zināt is for facts, such as where he lives.

  • Using zināt for a skill.

    Es zinu peldēt.
    Es protu peldēt.

    Knowing how to do something is prast or mācēt: Es protu peldēt or Es māku peldēt.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

zināt / pazīt / prastLevel 3Three Kinds of Knowing

Learn This First

Three verbs mean to know.

Words in This Pattern

zinātpazītprastmācēt