French Language > Verbs

Savoir
Both a Semi-Auxliary and a Verb in Its Own Right

Savoir is a semi-auxiliary when it is followed by an infinitive. When it is followed by a noun phrase or a noun clause it is functioning as a verb in its own right.

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I. Savoir as a Verb in Its Own Right:  “Know” Versus “Learn”

When savoir is followed by a noun or the equivalent, it has two basic and rather different meanings: “to know” (a fact), and “to learn.” Which meaning depends on the tense.

A. Savoir = “To Know”

Savoir in the present tense means “know”:

• Je sais son nom. (I know his name.)
• Je sais la date. (I know the date.)
• Je sais que le nombre atomique du strontium est 36. (I know that the atomic number of strontium is 36.)
• Je sais que mon rédempteur est vivant. (I know that my redeemer liveth.)

Savoir in the imperfect means “knew”:

• Je savais son nom, mais rien de plus. (I knew his name, but nothing more.)
• Je savais que vous alliez dire cela. (I knew you were going to say that.)

B. Savoir = “To Learn”

Savoir in the passé composé never means “knew”; it means “learned” or some equivalent expression (“became aware, realized”). (The aspect of the compound tense implies, with this verb, a change from a state of ignorance to its opposite.)

• J’ai su son nom. (I learned his name.)
• J’ai su que mes amis complotaient contre moi. (I / learned / realized / that my friends were plotting against me.)
• C’est alors que j’ai su que ma femme me trompait. (It was then that I realized that my wife was cheating on me.)

Likewise, savoir in the future or conditional can have the meaning “learn.” Why? Because the implication is that at some future point, or under some as yet unrealized condition, the subject of the verb will pass from a state of ignorance to its opposite.

• La vérité de la chose, la saura-t-on jamais? (Will we ever / learn / know / the truth of the matter?)
• « Ce n’est pas par moi qu’on saura quelque chose, je ne dis jamais rien. » (“They won’t learn anything from me, I never say anything.”) – Marcel Proust
• « …en un mot tout ce que le public ne saurait que le lendemain ou plus tard… » (“In a word, everything the public would learn only the next day or even later…”)– Marcel Proust

Occasionally even in the present savoir can be translated by “learn”:

• Plaider le faux pour savoir le vrai. (To plead the false, in order to learn the true.)

The above can be put into a rule:

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II. Savoir as a Semi-Auxiliary: “To Know How To” and “To Manage To”

When it takes an infinitive, i.e., when it is functioning as a semi-auxiliary, it can mean “to know how to,” and consequently “can” (in the sense of, precisely, “to have the requisite knowledge or skill to”).

• Il sait nager. Il sait taper à la machine. Il sait coudre. (He knows how to swim. He knows how to type. He knows how to sew. = He can swim. He can type. He can sew.)
• Il sait plaire à tout le monde. Il sait jouer du piano. (He knows how to please everybody. He knows how to play the piano.)

Both savoir and pouvoir may be translated as “can,” the difference being that savoir means ability to do something through knowledge or skill, and pouvoir means having the physical ability or permission to do something.

• Je ne peux pas nager; ma mère ne le veut pas. (I can’t swim; my mother doesn’t want me to.)
• Etant valide, je peux nager. (Being able-bodied, I can swim.)
• Je sais nager, ayant suivi un cours de natation. (I can swim, having taken swimming lessons.)

The Semi-Auxiliary in the Passé Composé

Savoir in the passé composé followed by an infinitive means two things: a) the subject knew how to do the action of the infinitive (had the requisite knowledge or skill for the purpose) and b) actually did perform the action on the particular occasion. Hence, it can be translated in such cases as “managed to = figured out how to.”

• Il a su apaiser la colère des dieux. (He / managed / was able / to calm the wrath of the gods.)
• Il a su faire marcher l’appareil. (He / managed / was able / to get the device to work.)

The Ne saurait Construction

This is a special use of savoir as a semi-auxiliary.

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III. Two Special Uses of the Infinitive Savoir

A. “To Wit”

The infinitive, usually (but not always) preceded by the preposition à, means “namely, to wit.”

• On est généralement d’accord pour dire que le temps se divise en trois parties, à savoir, le passé, le présent et le futur. (It is generally agreed that time is divided into three parts, namely, the past, the present, and the future.)
• Un seul chercheur, à savoir notre collègue Lucien Poulain, a su résoudre le problème. (A single researcher, namely our colleague Lucien Poulain, succeeded in solving the problem.)

B. “The Question…”

French prose-writers do not like to stick a question right next to the French word question. English writers have no such qualm:

• the question whether they were right or not
• the question why nothing was done
• the question what makes us plugged-in

In contrast, French writers insert the words de savoir to ease the transition from the word to the thing:

• la question de savoir s’ils avaient raison
• la question de savoir pourquoi on n’a rien fait
• la question de savoir ce qui fait de nous des branchés

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