French guides · Verb tables + audio
Savoir: to know a fact, and to know how.
Savoir means “to know” — but only half of what English means by it. French splits knowing in two. Savoir handles facts and skills: knowing that, knowing where, knowing how. Connaître handles acquaintance: knowing a person, a city, a book. Get the split right and a lot of French stops sounding translated.
Présent — sai- and sav-
Short and irregular. Sai- in the singular, sav- everywhere else — including ils savent, which breaks the usual pattern where ils sides with the singular.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je sais | I know | |
| tu sais | you know | |
| il / elle sait | he / she knows | |
| nous savons | we know | |
| vous savez | you know | |
| ils / elles savent | they know |
It is “zhay-say” written down and closer to “zhsay” spoken. In fast speech it collapses further: je sais pas — already dropping the ne — is heard as “shay pa”. That single sound is one of the most common things you will hear in French and it is worth recognising before you can produce it.
Savoir or connaître?
This is the section that matters. Both are “to know”; they are not interchangeable, and choosing wrongly is one of the most audible learner mistakes in French.
| Use savoir for | Example | Use connaître for |
|---|---|---|
| a fact | je sais qu’il est là | a person |
| a piece of information | je sais où c’est | a place |
| a skill | je sais nager | a book, a film, a song |
| something learnt by heart | je sais le poème | a subject, loosely |
If the next word is que, où, quand, pourquoi, comment, si or an infinitive, you want savoir. If the next thing is simply a noun — a name, a place, a title — you almost always want connaître. Connaître can never be followed by que.
One more that catches people: “I know how to swim” is je sais nager, with no word for “how”. French puts the infinitive straight after savoir and the “how to” is built in. Adding comment makes it mean something else — the method rather than the ability.
Passé composé — found out
Participle su. And the meaning shifts the way it does with pouvoir and vouloir: j’ai su is not “I knew” but “I found out” — the moment the knowing started.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’ai su | I found out / learnt | |
| tu as su | you found out / learnt | |
| il / elle a su | he / she found out / learnt | |
| nous avons su | we found out / learnt | |
| vous avez su | you found out / learnt | |
| ils / elles ont su | they found out / learnt |
Je savais qu’il venait — I knew he was coming (a state). J’ai su qu’il venait — I found out he was coming (an event). For plain “I knew”, you want the imparfait almost every time.
Imparfait — the one you will use
Regular from sav-, and far more common in the past than the passé composé. Knowing is a state, and states live in the imparfait.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je savais | I knew / used to know | |
| tu savais | you knew / used to know | |
| il / elle savait | he / she knew / used to know | |
| nous savions | we knew / used to know | |
| vous saviez | you knew / used to know | |
| ils / elles savaient | they knew / used to know |
Futur and conditionnel — saur-
A stem with no visible link to the infinitive: saur-. On saura demain, “we’ll know tomorrow” — a very common way to close a conversation about something undecided.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je saurai | I will know | |
| tu sauras | you will know | |
| il / elle saura | he / she will know | |
| nous saurons | we will know | |
| vous saurez | you will know | |
| ils / elles sauront | they will know |
Conditionnel — and a literary negative
Je saurais, “I would know”. There is also a formal construction worth recognising: je ne saurais vous dire — literally “I would not know how to tell you”, meaning “I couldn’t say”. It takes no pas, which is the giveaway that it is a set literary form.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je saurais | I would know | |
| tu saurais | you would know | |
| il / elle saurait | he / she would know | |
| nous saurions | we would know | |
| vous sauriez | you would know | |
| ils / elles sauraient | they would know |
Subjonctif — sach-
Another stem out of nowhere, sach-, and this one is regular right through — no boot, no split. Bien que je sache…, “although I know…”.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| je sache | (that) I know | |
| tu saches | (that) you know | |
| il / elle sache | (that) he / she know | |
| nous sachions | (that) we know | |
| vous sachiez | (that) you know | |
| ils / elles sachent | (that) they know |
Impératif — borrowed from the subjunctive
Sache and sachez come from the subjunctive stem, not the présent. Sachez que… — “be aware that…” — is common in formal speech and writing.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| sache ! | know! (to one person you know) | |
| sachons ! | let’s know! | |
| sachez ! | know! (formal, or to a group) |
Plus-que-parfait — had known
J’avais su. Most often met in regret: si j’avais su…, “if I’d known…” — usually left unfinished, exactly as in English.
| French | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|
| j’avais su | I had known | |
| tu avais su | you had known | |
| il / elle avait su | he / she had known | |
| nous avions su | we had known | |
| vous aviez su | you had known | |
| ils / elles avaient su | they had known |
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Quick answers
Savoir, answered.
The questions that come up while you are learning the table.