Learn French: Vous devriez connaître cette tradition ancienne.

Vous devriez connaître cette tradition ancienne.

You should know this old tradition.

Breakdown of Vous devriez connaître cette tradition ancienne.

old / ancient (former, antique)

Questions & Answers about Vous devriez connaître cette tradition ancienne.

Why is it devriez instead of devez?

Devriez is the conditional form of the verb devoir (to have to). While vous devez means you must do something, using the conditional vous devriez softens it to mean you should do it. This is the standard way to give polite advice in French.

Why do we use connaître here instead of savoir?

In French, connaître is used when you are familiar with a noun, such as a person, place, or thing. Here, the object is a thing: cette tradition. You use savoir for knowing a fact, a piece of information, or knowing how to do an action.

Why is ancienne placed after the noun?

The adjective ancien and its feminine form ancienne change meaning based on their position. Placed after the noun, as in tradition ancienne, it means old or ancient. If it were placed before the noun, it would mean former.

Why does the sentence use cette?

Cette is the feminine singular word for this or that. It is required here because words ending in -tion like tradition are almost always feminine.