Question 1

Why is there no pas after sais in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

This is a literary or elegant form of negation called the 'ne littéraire'. With a few specific verbs—most commonly savoir (to know), pouvoir (to be able to), oser (to dare), and cesser (to cease)—you can drop the pas and just use ne to make the sentence negative.

Question 2

Is it common to use ne sais without pas in everyday spoken French?

Accepted Answer

No, in casual spoken French you will almost always hear je ne sais pas (or simply je sais pas). Dropping the pas with savoir gives the sentence a formal, poetic, or literary tone, which fits perfectly here since the speaker is talking about the beauty of a poem.

Question 3

I learned that 'to know how to do something' is just savoir plus an infinitive. Why is comment used here?

Accepted Answer

You are right that learned abilities do not use comment (for example, je sais nager means 'I know how to swim'). However, when you mean 'I don't know in what way' or 'I don't have the words to', you use savoir comment. Here, je ne sais comment décrire means the speaker literally doesn't know what words to choose.

Question 4

Could I use connaître instead of savoir for 'know' in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

No, because you are talking about knowing how to perform an action. Savoir is used before verbs (like décrire) and for facts. Connaître is strictly used with nouns to mean you are familiar with a person, place, or thing, such as saying je connais ce poème (I know this poem).

Je ne sais comment décrire la beauté de ce poème.

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