français · A2 · verb · 4 minutes
Savoir: present tense
Say what you know and what you know how to do.
Understand the choice
Savoir covers facts, information, and learned abilities. Connaître instead presents familiarity with a person, place, or noun. The contrast becomes clearer by noticing what follows the verb.
Core rule: Savoir uses sai- in singular and sav- in plural; before an infinitive it means know how to.
Notice it in context
Je sais cuisiner, mais je ne sais pas faire ce dessert.
I know how to cook, but I do not know how to make this dessert.
Sais carries both first-person statements; cuisiner and faire identify abilities.
Vous savez où se trouve la gare ?
Do you know where the station is?
Savoir introduces an indirect question with normal statement order.
Ils savent nager, mais ils connaissent mal la mer.
They know how to swim, but they do not know the sea well.
Savoir + infinitive names an ability; connaître + noun names familiarity.
What to remember
- Je ne sais pas is the ordinary answer for “I don’t know.”
- Sais and sait sound alike, while savez and savent begin with the sav- stem.
Common trap: Do not put comment after savoir merely to mean an ability: je sais nager is sufficient for “I know how to swim.”