Savoir vs Connaître in French: How to Choose

Use savoir for facts and skills. Use connaître for people, places and things you're familiar with. Here's a shortcut that works most of the time: if a clause or a verb comes next, you need savoir. If only a noun comes next, and especially a person or place, you usually need connaître.

Side by side

	Savoir	Connaître
Means	Knowing a fact, or how to do something	Being familiar with someone or something
Often followed by	que, si, où, quand, pourquoi, or a verb	A noun
Example	Je sais où il habite. (I know where he lives.)	Je connais cet homme. (I know this man.)
Example	Elle sait nager. (She can swim.)	Tu connais Lyon ? (Do you know Lyon?)

When to use savoir

Facts and information:

• Je sais que tu es fatigué. (I know that you're tired.)
• Nous ne savons pas s'il vient. (We don't know whether he's coming.)
• Je ne sais pas. (I don't know.)

Skills. With a verb straight after it, savoir means "to know how to":

• Il sait conduire. (He knows how to drive.)
• Tu sais cuisiner ? (Can you cook?)

When to use connaître

Connaître always takes a noun or pronoun as its object. It's about experience and familiarity:

• Je connais ta sœur. (I know your sister.)
• Nous connaissons bien Paris. (We know Paris well.)
• Tu connais ce livre ? (Do you know this book?)

It's wrong to put a clause after it, so never write je connais que.

When both are possible

With some nouns that are pieces of information, you can use either: je sais la réponse and je connais la réponse both work. So do je sais son nom and je connais son nom. Don't worry about these. Pick one and move on.

How to conjugate them

Both are irregular, so they're worth memorising.

	savoir	connaître
je	sais	connais
tu	sais	connais
il, elle, on	sait	connaît
nous	savons	connaissons
vous	savez	connaissez
ils, elles	savent	connaissent

You may also see connait without the circumflex, which the 1990 spelling reform allows.

A change in meaning in the past

In the passé composé, both verbs can shift meaning:

• J'ai su la vérité hier. (I found out the truth yesterday.)
• J'ai connu Marie à Paris. (I met Marie in Paris.)

For ongoing knowledge in the past, use the imparfait: je savais, je connaissais.

Test yourself

Choose savoir or connaître in the right form, then check below.

1. Je ne ___ pas où sont mes clés.
2. Tu ___ mon frère ?
3. Elle ___ parler italien.
4. Nous ___ un bon restaurant ici.
5. Vous ___ quand le train arrive ?
6. Ils ___ très bien Marseille.

Answers: 1. sais. 2. connais. 3. sait. 4. connaissons. 5. savez. 6. connaissent.

Keep going

Our French irregular verbs lesson and imperfect lesson cover more of what's here, each with a quiz.

These two verbs start to feel natural once you've met them often in real French. Our Learn French app goes from vocabulary and grammar through graded reading to Flaubert, Balzac and Maupassant, with a translation under every line. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.