French/Lessons/Communication

Verbs ending in -aître, such as connaître, meaning to know (personally), are conjugated irregularly.

The noun means knowledge or acquaintance:

The derived adjective means known or famous and the derived noun  means the known or a well-known person. Likewise, means unknown or strange and   means stranger:



1Naître has an irregular past participle (né) and takes être as its auxiliary verb in perfect tenses.

Connaître is used to say that you know someone, or are acquainted with someone or something:

Savoir is used to say that you know a fact or piece of information:

Savoir is also used to say that you know how to do something:

Téléphoner (à) is used to say that you are calling (to) someone. In French, you call to someone, so the verb is used with indirect, and not direct, objects:

Appeler is also used:

, meaning to say or to tell, is conjugated irregularly.

Formation
The related verb means to repeat, to restate, or to retell. The related phrase means to mean.

The following verbs are conjugated like dire, except that the second person plural form is -dissez, not -dites.

is also conjugated in this way, except that the third person plural is maudissent.

Formation
The verb, meaning to resend or to send back, is conjugated in the same way as envoyer.

 Verbs ending in -cevoir, such as recevoir, meaning to receive, are conjugated irregularly.

Appeler means to call or to call out.

Appeler is also used to say what your name is. Je m'appelle... literally means I call myself…, but in English you would say My name is…. Appeler is a regular -er verb, but is also stem changing.

Formation
, meaning to call back, recall, or remind, is conjugated in the same way as appeler. The reflexive form se rappeler means to remember.

Related words
The related masculine noun means call or appeal:

The noun means reminder or recall: