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 sçaveirĕ, Franco-Provençal savêr, Occitan saupre or saber, Catalan saber, Corsican sapè.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /sa.vwaʁ/
• 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 cessé la résistance dans la bande de Gaza», a poursuivi M. Abbas.» – Le Devoir, 3 September 2010

4. to find out

   Nous devons savoir pourquoi il a fait ça.

   We have to find out why he did this.

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)

infinitive	simple	savoir
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	sachant /sa.ʃɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		su /sy/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle	nous	vous	ils, elles
(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 historic2	sus /sy/	sus /sy/	sut /sy/	sûmes /sym/	sûtes /syt/	surent /syʁ/
	future	saurai /sɔ.ʁe/	sauras /sɔ.ʁa/	saura /sɔ.ʁa/	saurons /sɔ.ʁɔ̃/	saurez /sɔ.ʁe/	sauront /sɔ.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	saurais /sɔ.ʁɛ/	saurais /sɔ.ʁɛ/	saurait /sɔ.ʁɛ/	saurions /sɔ.ʁjɔ̃/	sauriez /sɔ.ʁje/	sauraient /sɔ.ʁɛ/
(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	sache /saʃ/	saches /saʃ/	sache /saʃ/	sachions /sa.ʃjɔ̃/	sachiez /sa.ʃje/	sachent /saʃ/
	imperfect2	susse /sys/	susses /sys/	sût /sy/	sussions /sy.sjɔ̃/	sussiez /sy.sje/	sussent /sys/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	sache /saʃ/	—	sachons /sa.ʃɔ̃/	sachez /sa.ʃe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is only usable with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, the past historic, past anterior, imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive tenses may be found to have been replaced with the indicative present perfect, indicative pluperfect, present subjunctive and past subjunctive tenses respectively (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• à savoir
• ne pas savoir sur quel pied danser
• ne plus savoir où donner de la tête
• savant
• savoir-faire
• savoir gré
• savoir-vivre
• tout vient à point à qui sait attendre

 

Noun

savoir m (plural savoirs)

1. knowledge

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• avoirs

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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