Savoir, connaître, or croire?

French savoir, connaître, and croire can all appear in situations where English talks about what someone "knows" or "thinks." They do not, however, describe the same relationship to information.

Compare:

The English translations overlap, but the French verbs tell you something different about the speaker's relationship to what follows. For full treatment of each verb, see Focus on French Verbs: savoir, connaître, and croire.

Savoir: knowing information

Use savoir when you possess information or know a fact:

Savoir is especially common when the thing known could answer a question:

In each case, savoir describes possessing the relevant information.

Connaître: being familiar with someone or something

Use connaître when you know or are familiar with a person, place, subject, work, or thing:

connaître + noun

The idea is familiarity rather than possession of a particular fact.

Knowing Paul and knowing a fact about Paul are different kinds of knowledge, and French uses different verbs for them.

Croire: believing or thinking something is true

Use croire when something is a belief, opinion, or assumption rather than information presented as known:

With savoir, the speaker presents the information as known. With croire, the speaker presents it as something they believe to be true.

Savoir vs connaître

English uses "know" for both savoir and connaître, which makes this one of the most important distinctions for English-speaking learners.

The first expresses familiarity with the city. The second expresses possession of information about it.

The same distinction works with people:

And with subjects:

A useful first approximation:

• connaître + person, place, subject, or thing
• savoir + fact, clause, question, or ability

Savoir + infinitive

One construction makes savoir particularly easy to identify. Savoir + infinitive means to know how to do something:

savoir + infinitive

French does not insert an equivalent of English "how to" — not savoir comment + infinitive for the ordinary expression of a learned ability.

Connaître + noun

Connaître is strongly associated with nouns and pronouns representing what or whom someone knows:

If English "know" is followed directly by a person, place, or thing with which someone is familiar, connaître is often the verb required.

Savoir que vs croire que

Both savoir and croire can introduce a clause with que, but they do not make the same claim:

With savoir, the speaker presents his arrival as information they know. With croire, the speaker presents his arrival as something they believe or think to be true.

One subject, three different kinds of knowledge

The distinction becomes clearer when all three verbs are used around the same subject.

Imagine someone asks you about a restaurant:

You are familiar with the restaurant, you possess a fact about it, and you believe something about tonight without presenting it as known information. The restaurant has not changed — what changes is your relationship to the information.

The same pattern works with a person:

Choosing between savoir and connaître

When English gives you "know," ask what kind of knowledge you mean.

If you mean familiarity with a person, place, subject, or thing:

If you mean possession of information:

If you mean knowing how to perform an action:

The first says that the song is familiar to you. The second says that you know how to perform it.

Choosing between savoir and croire

When both verbs can introduce a statement, the question is whether you present the information as known or believed:

If you have the information and present it as known, use savoir. If you present it as your belief, opinion, or assumption, use croire.

Choosing between connaître and croire

The distinction between connaître and croire is usually clearer because their common constructions are quite different:

Connaître describes familiarity with the person. Croire means that you accept what he says as true:

Common mistakes

Using savoir for knowing a person

Using connaître before a clause

For a known fact expressed with que, use savoir:

Connaître normally takes a noun or pronoun representing the person or thing known.

Using connaître for knowing how

Use savoir + infinitive for a learned ability:

Using savoir when you mean "I think"

Choosing savoir presents the statement as known information. Choosing croire presents it as a belief.

Quick reference

When English gives you "know," "think," or "believe," look at what you are actually expressing.

The three verbs are easier to distinguish when you stop treating them as competing translations of English words. Connaître describes familiarity. Savoir describes knowledge or information. Croire describes belief. The construction that follows the verb usually tells you the rest.

From learning to practice

In conversation, pause when English gives you "know": are you talking about a person or place (Tu connais ce café ?), a fact (Je sais qu'il est fermé), or an opinion (Je crois qu'il est ouvert)? The wrong verb often still sounds grammatical but means something different — especially Je connais Paul versus Je crois Paul, or Je sais qu'il vient versus Je crois qu'il vient. Once those pairs feel distinct, the rest follows from the pattern after the verb.