Re: savoir-connaître (was: Re: can-may)

Rene Uittenbogaard wrote:

> ># 1 wrote:
>>
> >Maybe you don't know it clearly and that you only use it instinctively
>too >because I don't know how to explain clearly the difference between
>"savoir" >and "connaître" wich both means "to know" in english..
>I thought "connaître" is used for people and specific things:
>
>Je connais cet homme - I know that man Je connais ce livre - I know that
>book
>
>"savoir" is used for abilities and facts:
>
>Il sait lire - He knows how to read / He can read Il sait qui est venu - He
>knows who has come.
>
>correct?
OK wait until I open my dictionnary

Savoir:

1. être instruit dans qqch, posséder un métier, être capable d'une activité
dont on a acquis la pratique. Savoir Nager. Savoir l'anglais.

(1. To be instructed in smth, to possess a proffession, to be able of an
activity wich we acquired the doing. Savoir nager = to know how to swim.
Savoir l'anglais = to know english./to know how to speak in english.)

2. Avoir le pouvoir, le talent, le moyen de. Savoir se défendre

(2. to have the possibility, the talent, the capacity. Savoir se défendre =
to know how to fight)

Connaître:

1. Avoir une idée plus ou moins juste, savoir de façon plus où moins
précise. Je ne connais pas son nom mais je l'ai déjà vu quelque part

(1. To have an idea more or less just, SAVOIR in a more or less precise way.
I do not know his name but I have already seen him somewhere)


So we notice, first, that "savoir" is often "to know how", and second, that
"connaître" is like "savoir" but less precisely.

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