Le touriste connaît ce pays, mais il ne sait pas conduire ici.

Questions & Answers about Le touriste connaît ce pays, mais il ne sait pas conduire ici.

Why do we use connaît in the first half but sait in the second half, if both mean "know"?
In French, connaître is used when you are familiar with a place, person, or thing. That is why it is used before the noun ce pays (this country). Savoir is used for knowing facts or knowing how to do a skill. Here, it is used before the action conduire (to drive).
Why is there no French word for "how to" in il ne sait pas conduire?
You don't need one! In French, using the verb savoir directly before an infinitive verb (like conduire) automatically translates to knowing "how to" do that action.
The word pays ends in an 's'. Why does it use the singular ce instead of the plural ces?
The noun pays (country) is a masculine word that naturally ends in an 's' even in its singular form. Here, the tourist knows one specific country, so we use the singular masculine word for "this", which is ce. If the sentence meant "these countries", it would be ces pays.
Why does ne ... pas go around sait instead of conduire?
When you make a sentence negative, ne and pas always act like a sandwich around the conjugated verb. In this sentence, sait is the conjugated verb that matches the subject il, while conduire is in its unchanged dictionary (infinitive) form. Therefore, the negative words must go around sait.

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