Jérôme Petazzoni

Have a wonderful last day of the week, and if you're in a timezone where it's already Friday evening, I hope you'll have a fantastic week-end! Thank you for reading!

"I have to admit that I am deeply grateful for the facial recognition algorithm that helped me to find my son thanks to his pictures, get to know him, and recognize him legally." LANGUAGES! THEY'RE FABULOUS!

"Je dois reconnaître que j'ai une profonde reconnaissance pour l'algorithme de reconnaissance faciale qui m'a permis de retrouver mon fils grâce à ses photos, faire sa connaissance, et le reconnaître." ... What? That meant:

What about "reconnaissance?" It is the corresponding noun (so, "recognition") and in both languages, it can indicate "the act of identifying something" but also "gratitude." Are you ready for another completely silly example? Go!

And, just like in English, "reconnaître un enfant" means "recognize a kid" — i.e. admitting that the kid is yours.

And "reconnaître les faits" means "admit the facts" — like, "oh I had totally forgotten that I was the one who ate all the chocolate. But now that you point out that there is chocolate all over my computer, I suddenly remember that I did it! Ha ha how could I forget!"

You can "reconnaître quelqu'un," i.e. going from "who's that person? I don't know them!" to "oh right! I know that person" — i.e. "know them again." It also works for objects and music and anything that you didn't quite identify at first, but now you know!

What about the verb "reconnaître?" The prefix "re-" has the same meaning as in English: it implies repetition. Alright then, "reconnaître" is "to know again" but *what does that really mean?* It corresponds to the verb "recognize."

In this contrived example, "Je vais te mettre en contact avec une de mes vieilles connaissances qui a une bonne connaissance de ce problème." the adjectives give us hints. That'd translate to "I'll put you in touch with an long-time acquaintance who knows well that problem."

The verb "connaître" gives us the noun "connaissance," which can mean both "acquaintance" (someone I know) or "knowledge" (something I know). How do we know which one we meant? It's subtle! "La connaissance" (THE knowledge!) will be the abstract concept. But also …

For actions, we usually use "savoir" instead; e.g. "je sais conduire" = "I can drive"; "je sais y aller" = "I know the way to get there."

"Connaître" is a verb usually meaning "to know." It can be used both for people ("je connais Bob" = "Bob and I know each other") and places ("je connais Paris" = "I know [how to find my way in] Paris") and things ("je connais le C++" = "I know [how to write code in] C++").

Today's language thread is inspired by my mom, who reminded me that "connaissance" and "reconnaissance" are two totally different things! (Yay French!) Let's dive into that.