š Savoir vs ConnaĆ®tre – the Verb “to Know” in French


To translate “to know” in French, the choice between Savoir and ConnaĆ®tre depends on what follows the verb. Here are my clear explanations.
To translate āto knowā in French, we use two irregular verbs:
- Savoir
- ConnaƮtre
In this lesson, I am not going to go over theĀ French irregularĀ verbĀ conjugations, but will explain which one to use, and also how to avoid a big misunderstanding between French and English speakers.
Many English speakers might not really understand when a French person asks them āConnaissez-vous Paris ?ā: In French, it means āHave you been there yourself?ā, not just āhave you heard of itā.
Most method will tell you that āsavoirā is to know with a sense of having acquired knowledge, and āconnaĆ®treā is to know as in to be familiar with⦠pretty vague if you ask me.
In fact, itās much easier than that. What matters is what follows.
1 ā To Know in French ā Savoir Versus ConnaĆ®tre
A ā Savoir: To Know + Question / Infinitive /Nothing
āSavoirā is followed by an interrogative expression (où, pourquoi, qui, avec qui, quand, etcā¦):
- Tu sais où il habite ? Do you know where he lives?
- Savez-vous Ć quelle heure ils arrivent ? Do you know what time theyāre coming?
- Sais-tu pourquoi il a dit Ƨa ? Do you know why he said that?
āSavoirā is followed by a verb, to say āknowing how toā¦ā:
- Je sais danser. I know how to dance.
And āsavoirā can also be used alone.
- Tu sais quāil arrive Ć 3 heures? Oui, je sais.
B ā ConnaĆ®tre: To Know + People / Places
āConnaĆ®treā means āto knowā with the idea to be personally familiar with, to have experienced it yourself.
It is always followed by a NOUN ā it cannot be followed by anything else.
In most cases, āconnaĆ®treā is followed by nouns of people and places.
- Tu connais Sylvie ? Do you know Sylvie ?
- Vous connaissez Paris ? Do you know Paris?
This is where the English speaker has to be careful.
When a French person says āEst-ce que vous connaissez Paris ?ā, in most cases he/she doesnāt mean āDo you know (of) Parisā, but rather āHave you personally been there?ā.
Same with people; if you said āJe connais Brad Pittā, French speakers may think you have met him.
I have a funny story an American student told me. He was in Paris and met a lovely French woman in a bar, and started to speak with her. She didnāt speak any English, so he was speaking in French.
He said: āJe viens de Boston. Vous connaissez Boston ?ā
And the woman answered: āNon.ā
Then he said: āCe nāest pas loin de New-York, vous connaissez New-York?ā
And the woman answered: āNon.ā
He was a bit surprised but carried on: āCāest aux Etats-Unis, vous connaissez les Ćtats-Unis?ā
And she answered āNon.ā
Puzzled, he thought to himself: āCute, but not so smartā¦ā.
Of course, she understood he was asking her whether she had been there herself, not whether she knew where it wasā¦
So, in my opinion, what is important in that lesson is not the basic rule to translate to know in French ā itās rather easy⦠ConnaĆ®tre + people / place⦠Savoir with all the rest! But the trick is to understand and know what to answer when someone asks: āvous connaissez ā¦.ā.
On a related subject, you may be interested in my article about how to ask someone out on a date in French
2 ā ConnaĆ®tre ā to Know as to be Personally Acquainted With
So now, letās see how you can answer questions like: āEst-ce que vous connaissez Paris / GĆ©rard Depardieuā ?
The trick here is to understand the question: and this depends a bit on the context, the tone of the question.
- āEst-ce que vous connaissez Parisā almost always means āhave you been there yourselfā.
- āEst-ce que vous connaissez GĆ©rard Depardieuā⦠well, are you in the movie industry? In this case, it probably means āhave you met him personallyā.
On the other hand, if you are just discussing movies, itās more likely to mean ādo you know who he is?ā ā unless you said something before that could make believe that you actually knew him personally.
So, with people the context is very important.

3 ā Answering a Question With ConnaĆ®tre in French
To answer a question with āconnaĆ®treā, youāll probably need to switch verb, and use a verb a bit more precise than āto knowā:
- Est-ce que vous connaissez Paris ?
Non, je nāy suis jamais allĆ©(e) ā Iāve never been there.
Oui, jāy suis allĆ©(e) il y a + time ā Yes, Iāve been there⦠ago - Est-ce que vous connaissez GĆ©rard Depardieu / Catherine Deneuve
Oui, je le/la connais bien ā Yes, I know him/her well.
Oui, je lāai dĆ©jĆ rencontrĆ©(e) ā Yes Iāve already met him/her.
Non, je ne lāai jamais rencontrĆ©(e) ā No, Iāve never met him/her
4 ā More Q&A Using to Know in French
- Est-ce que vous connaissez Chenonceau (a gorgeous castle in the Loire Valley ā see picture below)
Non, mais jāen ai entendu parler ā (Iāve never been there myself) but Iāve heard of it
Je nāen ai jamais entendu parler ā Iāve never heard of it. - Est-ce que vous connaissez Sylvie/ Pierre ? (not a famous person, maybe a friend of mine)
Non, mais jāai entendu parler de lui / dāelle ā (I have never met him/her personally) but Iāve heard about him / her
Non, je nāai jamais entendu parler de lui/dāelle ā Iāve never heard about him/her - Est-ce que tu sais qui cāest ā Do you know who it is?
Je sais qui cāest, mais je ne le/la connais pas personnellement ā I know who it is, but I donāt know him/her personally. - Est-ce que vous savez où cāest ā Do you know where it is?
Je sais où cāest, mais je nāy suis jamais allĆ©(e) ā I know where it is, but Iāve never been there myself.
Non, pas du tout ā no not at all.
5 ā Typical Dialogues With To Know in French
ā āVous connaissez Paris ?ā
ā āOui, jāy suis allĆ©(e) il y a 3 ans.ā
ā Or ānon, je nāy suis jamais allĆ©(e).ā
ā āTu connais Anne ?ā
ā āOui, je lāai rencontrĆ©e chez Pierre.ā
ā āNon, je ne la connais pas personnellement, mais je sais qui cāest. En fait, jāai beaucoup entendu parler dāelle.ā
6 ā To Know + Noun in French
Now, all this being said, I have to admit that āsavoirā can also be used with a noun. Never a person though.
When savoir is used with a noun, it has the meaning of to know as a result of having studying it. Most of the time, you can use āconnaĆ®treā there as well (so why make your life difficult? Stick with connaĆ®tre + noun and youāll be fineā¦)
- Tu sais ta leƧon ? = tu connais ta leƧon ? = You know (youāve studied) your leƧon.
7 ā To Know by Heart in French
To say āto know by heartā, we say āconnaĆ®tre par coeurā.
āSavoir par coeurā is also possible but for the reason mentioned above, I suggest you stick with āconnaĆ®tre par coeurā.
- Tu connais ta leƧon ? Do you know your leƧon.
- Oui, je la connais par coeur. Yes, I know it by heart.
Not that we also use the expression āconnaĆ®tre quelquāun par coeurā: to know someone so well that you are not surprised by their action, or can predict what theyāll do:
- Je savais très bien que tu allais venir quand même⦠Je te connais par coeur !
I knew very well you were still going to come⦠I know you by heart!
8 ā To Know Men or Women⦠Bible like
In the Bible or older French text, you may find something like āMarie nāavait pas connu dāhommeā (Mary didnāt know any man) ā this meaning is sexual, it means she had not been with a man. We would not use that in modern French.
9 ā Knowledge in French
Since you have two verbs, youāre going to have two nouns: honestly, to explain the difference is going to be very hard⦠Most of the time they are interchangeable, but Iāll try.
- le savoir ā is the knowledge you have acquired from learning something. We talk a lot about āle savoir-faireā for artisans for example.
- la connaissance ā is inside you. Itās your own interpretation of a general knowledge. Itās the word commonly used for āknowledgeā.
VoilĆ , I hope you wonāt hesitate to translate to know in French from now on.
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