savoir

• sçavoir (ca. 15th–18th c.)
• sçapvoir (ca. 1500s–1740, literary, very rare)

Inherited from Old French savoir/eir, from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapĕre.

• IPA^(key): /sa.vwaʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -waʁ

savoir

1. to know (something)

   Savais-tu qu’il parle si bien l’anglais?

   Did you know that he speaks English so well?

   Comment savait-il que j’étais là?

   How did he know that I was there?

   Il est difficile de savoir si elle ment.

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

   Il tire cette approche en inventant une situation initiale, dans laquelle on interrogerait les individus sur la forme qu’ils voudraient d’une société sans qu’ils sachent quelle place ils y auraient.

   He derives this approach by inventing an initial situation, in which individuals would be questioned about the form they would like from a society without them knowing what place they would have in it.

   Difficile à savoir (expression; compare 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 or interrogative conditional; used in the positive in Belgium)
   • 2021, Zaz, Tout là-haut:

     Si on s’en allait tout là-haut pour mieux s’imprégner des couleurs, saurions-nous faire taire notre égo ?

     If we went up there to better soak up the colours, would we be able to silence our ego?

   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.

     "It cannot be considered an act of resistance, as Hamas has ceased the resistance in the Gaza strip", continued Mr. 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.

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

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

• Saint Dominican Creole French: savé

savoir m (plural savoirs)

1. knowledge

   Synonym: connaissance f

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

• avoirs

• saveir (archaic or northern)
• savier (La Vie de Saint Léger, ca. 980)

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapere (“taste, know”).

savoir

1. to know
   • c. 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

   • c. 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

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.

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

1. knowledge
2. wisdom

• Angevin: sçavouèr
• Bourbonnais-Berrichon: savoér
• Bourguignon: saivoi
• Champenois: saouâr
• Franc-Comtois: saivoi
• Gallo: savair
• Lorrain: sahoir
• Middle French: sçavoir
  • French: savoir
• Norman: saveî, saver
• Picard: savoèr
• Poitevin-Saintongeais: saver
• Walloon: saveur