savoir

The French verb “savoir” is a frequently used verb. It means “to know.” It is different from the verb “connaître,” which means “to know” in the sense of “to be familiar with.” “Savoir” is more like “to know how” (to do something). “Savoir” is an irregular verb, which means it doesn’t follow the usual rules for the conjugation of verbs ending in the letters “ir.” See below for the Present and Passé Composé tenses. You will notice that it also has an irregular past participle “su.”

Present Tense (Présent)

• Je sais (I know)
• Tu sais (You know)
• Il/Elle/On sait (He/She/One knows)
• Nous savons (We know)
• Vous savez (You know [formal/plural])
• Ils/Elles savent (They know)

Passé Composé

The passé composé of “savoir” is formed using the auxiliary verb “avoir” and the past participle “su”.

• J’ai su (I knew)
• Tu as su (You knew)
• Il/Elle/On a su (He/She/One knew)
• Nous avons su (We knew)
• Vous avez su (You knew [formal/plural])
• Ils/Elles ont su (They knew)

Examples:

To know how (to do something), to be able to:

• Elle sait jouer du piano. (She knows how to play the piano.)
• Sais-tu conduire une voiture ? (Do you know how to drive a car?)

To learn or to find out:

• Nous avons su la vérité hier. (We found out the truth yesterday.)
• J’ai su qu’il avait déménagé. (I found out that he had moved.)

To be aware of:

• Sais-tu qu’il va pleuvoir demain ? (Are you aware that it will rain tomorrow?)
• Ils savent que tu es là. (They know that you are here.)

To be knowledgeable or skilled in:

• Elle sait bien cuisiner des plats italiens. (She is skilled at cooking Italian dishes.)
• Il sait parfaitement parler plusieurs langues. (He is perfectly able to speak several languages.)