I want to say 'The whole time you knew how to play the guitar?'
My guess is something like 'El entero tiempo supiste como tocar la guitarra?' but I'm not sure the phrase 'the whole time' has the same usage in Spanish. I'm also unclear on sabias vs supiste in this context.

Gracias por su ayuda :)

Mark

Question

I want to say 'The whole time you knew how to play the guitar?'
My guess is something like 'El entero tiempo supiste como tocar la guitarra?' but I'm not sure the phrase 'the whole time' has the same usage in Spanish. I'm also unclear on sabias vs supiste in this context.

Gracias por su ayuda :)

Mark

Answer

"Todo el tiempo supiste cómo tocar la guitarra" is correct.

Answer

Yo diría "todo este tiempo sabías cómo tocar la guitarra"
The differences between "sabías" and "supiste". "sabias" is a form from the "pretérito imperfecto" in Spanish, and the other one "supiste" comes from the "pretérito perfecto simple".  Our "preterito perfecto" is your "present perfect" the uses are quite similar. The other one "preterito imperfecto" is used when we are atalking about the past but we don´t know when somenthing happened (if it was yesterday or a week ago).
To me both sound the same, but I think is more natural to say "sabías", not many people in Spain would say the other option (but Could be).

I wished I helped you¡¡

Answer

Gracias a ustedes, esto me ayuda mucho :)

Answer

"Todo ESTE tiempo supiste como tocar guitarra?" is also correct
Both forms "sabias and supiste" are correct

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