Questions & Answers about Je connais ce type de problème.
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 directly followed by a noun (in this case, the noun phrase ce type de problème). On the other hand, savoir is used for knowing facts, knowing how to do something, or is followed by a verb or a clause. Why is it ce type and not cet type or cette type?
Type is a masculine singular noun, so it takes the basic masculine singular demonstrative adjective ce (which means 'this' or 'that'). You only use cet before a masculine noun that starts with a vowel or a mute H, and cette is for feminine nouns. Why is there no article before problème? Shouldn't it be ce type d'un problème?
After classification phrases like type de (type of), sorte de (sort of), or genre de (kind of), the noun that follows usually doesn't take an article like un or le. It is treated as a general category rather than a specific item. Is problème feminine because it ends in an 'e'?
No, problème is actually masculine (un problème). Many French words ending in -ème that originally come from Greek, like le système or le thème, are masculine exceptions to the usual rule that nouns ending in 'e' are feminine. Learn Je connais ce type de problème and more in French
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