savoir

French

Alternative forms

• sçavoir (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old French savoir, saveir, from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapĕre (“to taste”) (and "to know" in Late Latin, by influence of the adjective sapiēns (“wise”)), present active infinitive of sapiō. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₁p- (“to try, to research”). The verb was for a long time spelled sçavoir from Middle French until the 18th century, by false regression to Classical Latin scīre "to know".

The forms of the verb with -ch- are a regular reflex of Latin -pi- (/-pj-/). Compare seiche, approcher, hache.

See cognates in regional languages in France : Angevin sçavouèr, Bourbonnais-Berrichon savoér, Bourguignon saivoi, Champenois saouâr, Franc-Comtois saivoi, Gallo savair, Lorrain sahoir, Norman saveî, Picard savoèr, Poitevin-Saintongeais saver, Tourangeau sçavouèr, Franco-Provençal savêr, Occitan saupre or saber, Catalan saber, Corsican sapè.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /savwaʁ/
• Rhymes: -waʁ

Verb

savoir

1. to know (something)

   Il est difficile de savoir si elle ment.

   It's difficult to know if she's lying.

   Difficile à savoir (expression; confer Difficile à dire, voir, faire)

2. to know how (to do something)

   Savez-vous nager?

   Do you know how to swim?

3. to be able to, to be apt to (especially in the negative conditional)

   Il ne saurait tarder que...

   It cannot/will not be long before...

   «Il ne saurait être considéré comme un acte de résistance puisque le Hamas a a cessé la résistance dans la bande de Gaza», a poursuivi M. Abbas.» – Le Devoir, 3 September 2010

Usage notes

• To translate "know" in the sense "to be acquainted with", the verb connaître is used.

Conjugation

  Conjugation of savoir (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		savoir			avoir su
gerund		en sachant			en ayant su
present participle		sachant /sa.ʃɑ̃/
past participle		su /sy/
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	sais /sɛ/	sais /sɛ/	sait /sɛ/	savons /sa.vɔ̃/	savez /sa.ve/	savent /sav/
	imperfect	savais /sa.vɛ/	savais /sa.vɛ/	savait /sa.vɛ/	savions /sa.vjɔ̃/	saviez /sa.vje/	savaient /sa.vɛ/
	past historic1	sus /sy/	sus /sy/	sut /sy/	sûmes /sym/	sûtes /syt/	surent /syʁ/
	future	saurai /so.ʁe/	sauras /so.ʁa/	saura /so.ʁa/	saurons /so.ʁɔ̃/	saurez /so.ʁe/	sauront /so.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	saurais /so.ʁɛ/	saurais /so.ʁɛ/	saurait /so.ʁɛ/	saurions /so.ʁjɔ̃/	sauriez /so.ʁje/	sauraient /so.ʁɛ/
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	sache /saʃ/	saches /saʃ/	sache /saʃ/	sachions /sa.ʃjɔ̃/	sachiez /sa.ʃje/	sachent /saʃ/
	imperfect1	susse /sys/	susses /sys/	sût /sy/	sussions /sy.sjɔ̃/	sussiez /sy.sje/	sussent /sys/
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive tense of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	sache /saʃ/	—	sachons /sa.ʃɔ̃/	sachez /sa.ʃe/	—
1literary tenses

Synonyms

• (to know): connaître, connaitre
• (to know how to): pouvoir

Related terms

• à savoir
• savant
• savoir-faire
• savoir-vivre

Noun

savoir m (plural savoirs)

1. knowledge

Further reading

• “savoir” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• avoirs

---

Old French

Alternative forms

• saveir (early Old French or Anglo-Norman)
• savier (La Vie de Saint Léger, circa 980)

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapere, present active infinitive of sapiō (“I taste”), later "I know".

Verb

savoir

1. to know
   • circa 1180,, Chrétien de Troyes, Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la charrette:

     Mes qui l’apele il ne le sot :
     Fantosme cuide que ce soit.

     But he did not know who was calling him
     He thought that it was a ghost

   • circa 1155, Wace, Le Roman de Brut:

     Et mult sot de chiens et d'oisiax

     And he knew much about dogs and about birds

2. to be skilled in

   molt bien savoit le latin

   he was very skilled in Latin

Conjugation

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has a stressed present stem sev distinct from the unstressed stem sav, as well as other irregularities. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

    Conjugation of savoir (see also Appendix:Old French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		savoir			avoir seü
gerund		en savant, sachant			Use the gerund of avoir followed by the past participle
present participle		savant, sachant
past participle		seü
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		jo	tu	il	nos	vos	il
simple tenses	present	sai	ses	set	savons	savez	sevent
	imperfect	savoie, saveie	savoies, saveies	savoit, saveit	saviiens, saviens	saviiez, saviez	savoient, saveient
	preterite	soi	seüs	sot	seümes	seüstes	sorent
	future	savrai, sarai	savras, saras	savra, sara	savrons, sarons	savroiz, savreiz, savrez, saroiz, sareiz, sarez	savront, saront
	conditional	savroie, savreie, saroie, sareie	savroies, savreies, saroies, sareies	savroit, savreit, saroit, sareit	savriiens, savriens, sariiens, sariens	savriiez, savriez, sariiez, sariez	savroient, savreient, saroient, sareient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior	Use the preterite tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que jo	que tu	qu’il	que nos	que vos	qu’il
simple tenses	present	sache	saches	sache	sachiens, sachons	sachiez	sachent
	imperfect	seüsse	seüsses	seüst	seüssons, seüssiens	seüssoiz, seüssez, seüssiez	seüssent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nos	vos	–
		—	sache	—	sachiens, sachons	sachiez	—

Noun

savoir m (oblique plural savoirs, nominative singular savoirs, nominative plural savoir)

1. knowledge
2. wisdom

Descendants

• Middle French: sçavoir
  • French: savoir
• Walloon: saveur