Learn French: Tu connais un raccourci pour cet itinéraire ? - Do you know a shortcut for this route?

Tu connais un raccourci pour cet itinéraire ?

Do you know a shortcut for this route?

Breakdown of Tu connais un raccourci pour cet itinéraire ?

a / an (masculine)

you (informal singular)

pour

for

this (before a noun)

Questions & Answers about Tu connais un raccourci pour cet itinéraire ?

Why do we use connaître here instead of savoir?

In French, connaître is used when you are familiar with a person, place, or thing. It is always followed by a noun, like un raccourci (a shortcut) in this sentence. Savoir is used for knowing facts, knowing how to do something, or is followed by a verb or a question word (like who, what, or where). Since you are asking if someone is familiar with a specific thing, connaître is the correct choice.

Why is it cet itinéraire and not ce itinéraire?

Itinéraire is a masculine noun, so normally you would use the masculine word for "this", which is ce. However, because itinéraire starts with a vowel, ce changes to cet to make it easier to pronounce. It sounds like "set". If the noun were feminine, you would use cette instead.

Is the word raccourci related to any other French words?

Yes! It is built from the adjective court, which means "short". The verb meaning "to shorten" is raccourcir, and the noun form used here is un raccourci (a shortcut).

Why isn't there an est-ce que at the beginning of this question?