savoir

to know (something); to know how (to do something); to be able to, to be apt to (especially in the negative or interrogative conditional; used in the positive in Belgium); to find out

“Savais-tu qu'il parle si bien l'anglais?” — Did you know that he speaks English so well?

Inherited from Old French savoir/eir, from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapĕre. Comments The now-obsolete spelling sçavoir owes its ⟨ç⟩ to the Latin scīre (“to know”), which was long assumed to be the etymon of the French verb. The 1SG present indicative sais comes from Old French sai < Vulgar Latin */ˈsajo/ ≠ Classical Latin sapiō. The inflections with ⟨ch⟩ reflect regular palatalization of an original [pj], as in sache < Old French sacheṭ < */ˈsa(p)t͡ʃat/ < */ˈsapjat/ < Classical Latin sap

knowledge

Inherited from Old French savoir/eir, from Vulgar Latin *sapēre, from Latin sapĕre. Comments The now-obsolete spelling sçavoir owes its ⟨ç⟩ to the Latin scīre (“to know”), which was long assumed to be the etymon of the French verb. The 1SG present indicative sais comes from Old French sai < Vulgar Latin */ˈsajo/ ≠ Classical Latin sapiō. The inflections with ⟨ch⟩ reflect regular palatalization of an original [pj], as in sache < Old French sacheṭ < */ˈsa(p)t͡ʃat/ < */ˈsapjat/ < Classical Latin sap