English has one verb where French has two, and that is the whole problem. I know her, I know how to swim and I know that it is late all use the same word in English; in French the first takes connaître and the other two take savoir. Choosing between them is not a question of meaning or of nuance, which is what makes it learnable: it is a question of grammar, and the answer is sitting right after the verb.
The poster puts the two verbs in two columns, savoir on the left and connaître on the right, so the five patterns face each other line by line. The page below is the same content in text, plus the three things the poster has no room for: the past tenses, where both verbs quietly change meaning, the two conjugations, which are irregular, and the sentences learners get wrong.
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The nine grammar traps English speakers fall into
One page per trap: the rule in a single line, two examples that show it working, and the sentence learners actually say by mistake.
- Object pronouns, en and y, qui / que / dont / où, all on one sheet
- Passé composé against imparfait, and futur against conditionnel
- The homophones and the gender endings worth memorising
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The rule in one table
Look at what comes after the verb. A noun takes connaître. A verb, a que clause or a question word takes savoir. Nothing else decides it.
| What follows | Verb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A verb in the infinitive | savoir | Je sais parler français. |
| Que and a clause | savoir | Je sais que c’est difficile. |
| Où, quand, pourquoi, comment, si | savoir | Tu sais où est la gare ? |
| A piece of information | savoir | Je sais la réponse. |
| Nothing at all | savoir | Oui, je sais ! |
| A person | connaître | Je connais ta sœur. |
| A place | connaître | Elle connaît bien Lyon. |
| A thing, a song, a film | connaître | Tu connais cette chanson ? |
| A subject you are familiar with | connaître | Il connaît le vin. |
Connaître is never followed by a verb
This single fact settles most of the hesitation. Connaître always needs a noun or a pronoun after it, never an infinitive and never a clause. Je connais parler français does not exist in French, and neither does je connais que tu es fatigué. As soon as a verb or a que is coming, the answer is savoir, with no exception to remember.
The rule does not work as neatly in the other direction, because savoir can take a noun too. The difference is what kind of noun: savoir takes information you could state out loud, je sais la date, je sais son nom, je sais la réponse, while connaître takes something you are familiar with from experience, je connais son frère, je connais ce restaurant, je connais cette rue. If you can imagine writing the thing down as a fact, savoir works; if you would have to have met it, seen it or visited it, use connaître.
Savoir is an ability, pouvoir is a possibility
Savoir followed by an infinitive translates can, but only the can of a learned skill. Elle sait nager means she has learned to swim and still can. Je sais conduire means I have a licence and know what to do behind a wheel. Nothing in the sentence says anything about today.
Pouvoir is the other can: permission, opportunity, physical possibility right now. Elle peut nager means she is allowed to or there is nothing stopping her, perhaps a pool is open. The two sentences can even contradict each other in a useful way: je sais conduire mais je ne peux pas conduire aujourd’hui, I know how to drive but I cannot drive today. With a skill, use savoir; with a circumstance, use pouvoir.
In the past, both verbs change meaning
This surprises people at B1. In the imparfait both verbs mean what you expect, a state that lasted. In the passé composé they mean the moment it started, which is a different verb in English.
| Tense | Savoir | Connaître |
|---|---|---|
| Imparfait, the state | Je savais qu’il était malade. (I knew he was ill) | Je connaissais bien ce quartier. (I knew that area well) |
| Passé composé, the moment | J’ai su la vérité hier. (I found out the truth yesterday) | J’ai connu Marie à Lyon. (I met Marie in Lyon) |
So j’ai su is almost never I knew: it is I found out, I learned, the second the information reached you. And j’ai connu is not I knew either, it is I met, or I knew for a period of my life that is now over. Quand j’ai connu mon mari tells the story of the meeting. If you want to say that you knew something over a stretch of time, the imparfait is the tense you need: je savais, je connaissais.
The two conjugations
Both verbs are irregular and both are in the first hundred verbs you need, so they are worth learning as blocks rather than as rules. Note the circumflex on il connaît, which the 1990 spelling reform made optional but which most French people still write.
| savoir | connaître | |
|---|---|---|
| je | sais | connais |
| tu | sais | connais |
| il, elle, on | sait | connaît |
| nous | savons | connaissons |
| vous | savez | connaissez |
| ils, elles | savent | connaissent |
| participe passé | su | connu |
| futur | je saurai | je connaîtrai |
| subjonctif | que je sache | que je connaisse |
Four sentences to correct
Every one of these comes from applying English directly. The fix is always the same question: what comes after the verb?
| Not French | French | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Je connais parler français. | Je sais parler français. | A verb follows, so it has to be savoir. |
| Je sais Paris. | Je connais Paris. | A place follows, so it has to be connaître. |
| Je connais que tu es fatigué. | Je sais que tu es fatigué. | Que follows, so it has to be savoir. |
| Je sais ton frère. | Je connais ton frère. | A person follows, so it has to be connaître. |
The set phrases worth keeping
A few expressions are fixed and will carry you a long way. Tu sais quoi ? is you know what, and it opens half the stories told in French. Qui sait ? is who knows. Je n’en sais rien is I have no idea at all. Autant que je sache, as far as I know, is the polite way to answer a question you are not sure about, and it uses the subjunctive form you saw above.
On the connaître side, faire connaissance means to get to know someone, je connais ça par cœur means I know it by heart, and je m’y connais en informatique means I know my way around computers. One last thing to listen for: in everyday speech the ne disappears, so I do not know comes out as je sais pas, almost as one word. Say it that way and you will sound French; write it that way in an exam and it counts as a mistake.