Connaître is a French verb that expresses knowing by acquaintance or experience, not by fact. It’s used for people, places, and things you are familiar with, and is typically not used for abstract knowledge or skills (that’s the realm of savoir).
- Use for familiarity or acquaintance: people, places, things.
- Not for knowing how to do something, or facts/information.
- Often used in positive, neutral, or negative forms of knowing someone/something.
- Connaître expresses to know in the sense of being familiar with or acquainted with someone or something.
- It is used for people, places, and things that you know on a personal or experiential level.
- This verb is not used for knowing facts or information (that’s savoir).
Typical Uses for Connaître
- Meeting or knowing people: Je connais Marie. → I know Marie.
- Being familiar with a place: Il connaît Paris. → He knows Paris.
- Recognizing or being familiar with a thing: Nous connaissons ce livre. → We know (are familiar with) this book.
Important: Not for Facts or Skills
- Not used for "to know how to do something" (use savoir).
- Not used for knowledge of facts or information (also savoir).
Connaître is used for knowing people, places, or things by acquaintance or experience, not for skills or facts. So, it's correct for knowing a person, being familiar with a city, or recognizing a piece of music—but not for knowing how to solve an equation or knowing a historical fact.
Connaître is a regular -re verb, but with a slight stem change (ç) for nous to preserve pronunciation.
| Subject | Conjugation | English |
|---|---|---|
| Je | connais | I know |
| Tu | connais | You know |
| Il/Elle/On | connaît | He/She/One knows |
| Nous | connaissons | We know |
| Vous | connaissez | You (pl.) know |
| Ils/Elles | connaissent | They know |
- The “ç” in connaissons keeps the soft “s” sound before “o.”
The correct form is 'nous connaissons' to maintain the soft 'c' sound before 'o'.
Connaître uses avoir as its auxiliary verb in compound tenses.
| Subject | Auxiliary + Past Participle |
|---|---|
| All | Avoir (conj.) + connu |
- J'ai connu, Tu as connu, Il/Elle a connu, Nous avons connu, Vous avez connu, Ils/Elles ont connu
- connu = known (familiarity)
'connu' is the past participle of 'connaître' used in passé composé.
Used for ongoing/past habitual knowing, or background info.
| Subject | Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Je | connaissais |
| Tu | connaissais |
| Il/Elle/On | connaissait |
| Nous | connaissions |
| Vous | connaissiez |
| Ils/Elles | connaissaient |
- Stem is connaiss- for all forms.
The imparfait stem of 'connaître' is 'connaiss-'.
| Tense | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| Present | Je connais bien ton frère. | I know your brother well. |
| Present | Vous connaissez cette chanson ? | Do you know this song? |
| Passé Composé | Nous avons connu des difficultés. | We encountered difficulties. |
| Imperfect | Quand j'étais jeune, je connaissais tout le monde. | When I was young, I knew everyone. |
Connaître is essential for expressing familiarity and acquaintance with people, places, and things—distinguishing you from savoir, which covers facts and skills.
- Use connaître for knowing (in the sense of familiarity) people, places, and things.
- Conjugate as a regular -re verb with a spelling change (ç) for nous in the present: connaissons.
- Use avoir + connu for the passé composé.