connaître

See also: connaitre

French

Alternative forms

• connaitre
• connoître (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French conoistre, from Latin cognōscere, present active infinitive of cognōscō (probably through a Vulgar Latin *connōscere).

See cognates in regional languages in France : Norman counnaîte, Picard connoète, Bourguignon quenoître, Franco-Provençal cognêtre, Occitan conóisser or conéisser, Corsican cunnosce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.nɛtʁ/

• audio:

  (file)

Verb

connaître

1. (transitive) to know (of), to be familiar with (a person, place, fact, event)
2. (transitive) to know, to experience (glory, hunger, problems etc.)
3. (transitive, archaic) to know (sexually)
4. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to be knowledgeable (en about)

   C’est toi qui t’y connais! ― You're the expert! (literally, “It is you who knows!”)

Usage notes

In the sense of "to know something to be true", the verb savoir is used.

Conjugation

This verb is one of a fairly small group of -re verbs, that are all conjugated the same way. They are unlike other verb groups in that the 'i' is given a circumflex before a 't'.

Conjugation of connaître (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	connaître
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	connaissant /kɔ.nɛ.sɑ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.sɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		connu /kɔ.ny/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	connais /kɔ.nɛ/	connais /kɔ.nɛ/	connaît /kɔ.nɛ/	connaissons /kɔ.nɛ.sɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.sɔ̃/	connaissez /kɔ.nɛ.se/ or /kɔ.ne.se/	connaissent /kɔ.nɛs/
	imperfect	connaissais /kɔ.nɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.sɛ/	connaissais /kɔ.nɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.sɛ/	connaissait /kɔ.nɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.sɛ/	connaissions /kɔ.nɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.sjɔ̃/	connaissiez /kɔ.nɛ.sje/ or /kɔ.ne.sje/	connaissaient /kɔ.nɛ.sɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.sɛ/
	past historic2	connus /kɔ.ny/	connus /kɔ.ny/	connut /kɔ.ny/	connûmes /kɔ.nym/	connûtes /kɔ.nyt/	connurent /kɔ.nyʁ/
	future	connaîtrai /kɔ.nɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁe/	connaîtras /kɔ.nɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁa/	connaîtra /kɔ.nɛ.tʁa/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁa/	connaîtrons /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɔ̃/	connaîtrez /kɔ.nɛ.tʁe/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁe/	connaîtront /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	connaîtrais /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɛ/	connaîtrais /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɛ/	connaîtrait /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɛ/	connaîtrions /kɔ.nɛ.tʁi.jɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁi.jɔ̃/	connaîtriez /kɔ.nɛ.tʁi.je/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁi.je/	connaîtraient /kɔ.nɛ.tʁɛ/ or /kɔ.ne.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	connaisse /kɔ.nɛs/	connaisses /kɔ.nɛs/	connaisse /kɔ.nɛs/	connaissions /kɔ.nɛ.sjɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.sjɔ̃/	connaissiez /kɔ.nɛ.sje/ or /kɔ.ne.sje/	connaissent /kɔ.nɛs/
	imperfect2	connusse /kɔ.nys/	connusses /kɔ.nys/	connût /kɔ.ny/	connussions /kɔ.ny.sjɔ̃/	connussiez /kɔ.ny.sje/	connussent /kɔ.nys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	connais /kɔ.nɛ/	—	connaissons /kɔ.nɛ.sɔ̃/ or /kɔ.ne.sɔ̃/	connaissez /kɔ.nɛ.se/ or /kɔ.ne.se/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• connaissance
• connu

Further reading

• “connaître”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• actionner, container, encornait, reconnait, reconnaît, renonçait

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Norman

Alternative forms

• counaîte (France, Guernsey)

Etymology

From Old French conoistre, from Latin cognōscere, present active infinitive of cognōscō (probably through a Vulgar Latin *connōscere).

Verb

connaître

1. (Jersey) to know

Derived terms

• connaître de vue (“to know by sight”)