spoke/speak

  1. I didn’t know you spoke Hindi.
  2. I didn’t know you speak Hindi.
    What is the difference between the two sentences in meaning?
    What is the grammar involved in these two sentences?

1 is more natural.

What about the following sentence?

  1. I haven’t known you speak Hindi.

Thanks

Beeesneees/Dozy,

  1. I didn’t know you spoke Hindi.(Natural)
  2. I didn’t know you speak Hindi. (Not natural)
    The first sentence is natural and the the next sentence is unnatural.
    I can’t understand this.
    Could you explain me with some more examples with their nuances of the grammar?
    Thanks.

‘didn’t know’ is not a tense match with ‘speak’, so the sentence sounds odd.

Doesn’t work:

This would be OK: I haven’t known you to speak Hindi before.

It does nto have the same meaning as the originals.

I think, the following sentence may work too:

I haven’t known you speak Hindi before.

That’s to say, to is optional in this case.

What about

I haven’t known you spoke Hindi.

Thanks

no