Connaître vs. Savoir
As you may know, two verbs to know are used in French. Which one do I need to use then? Well, context is very important and usually defines which verb you’re going to use. Besides grammar is essential in this particular case and is going to help a lot to pick the correct verb accordingly. Let’s first conjugate these two verbs in présent to refresh our memory:
| Connaître | Savoir |
|---|---|
| Je connais | Je sais |
| Tu connais | Tu sais |
| Il/elle/on connaît | Il/elle/on sait |
| Nous connaissons | Nous savons |
| Vous connaissez | Vous savez |
| Ils/elles connaissent | Ils/elles savent |
From now on, you need to memorize these formulas.
Connaître + noun
-
You know someone
Je connais Marie I know Marie -
You’re familiar with something
Je connais un restaurant français I know a French restaurant
Savoir + infinitive form of a verb
No need to add ‘how’ in French.
Savoir + relative pronoun
| Pronom relatif | Relative pronoun |
|---|---|
| qui | who |
| où | where |
| quand | when |
| à quoi | what/what for |