Questions & Answers about Je veux connaître la raison.
French separates connaître and savoir more clearly than English does with to know.
- connaître = to be familiar with / to know a person or thing
→ It’s followed by a noun or pronoun: connaître la raison, connaître Paris, connaître cette personne. - savoir = to know a fact / to know how / to know that…
→ Often followed by que, si, où, pourquoi, or an infinitive: savoir pourquoi, savoir que…, savoir conduire.
Since la raison is a noun, connaître la raison is the most natural pattern. You could say Je sais la raison, but it’s less idiomatic; people more often say Je connais la raison or Je sais pourquoi.
Practically always, yes. Connaître is a transitive verb:
- connaître quelque chose / quelqu’un
- connaître la raison
- connaître cette ville
- connaître Marie
You can sometimes drop the object if it’s obvious from context (like in English “I know” when it’s clear what you mean), but grammatically connaître normally takes a direct object.
In French, you almost always need an article before a singular countable noun, even an abstract one:
- la raison = the reason
- une raison = a reason
- raison on its own is rare and usually part of set expressions, not normal sentences.
So French says la raison where English can drop the article: “know the reason” vs “know why”. Here, la shows we’re talking about a specific reason that both speakers have in mind.
You can say Je veux savoir la raison, and it is grammatically correct, but it sounds a bit more formal or heavy. In everyday speech, people usually say either:
- Je veux connaître la raison. (verb + noun)
- Je veux savoir pourquoi. (verb + pourquoi clause)
So Je veux connaître la raison is the more natural way to use a noun (la raison), and Je veux savoir pourquoi is the natural way to use pourquoi.
They’re very close in meaning and often interchangeable, but the structure differs:
- Je veux connaître la raison.
→ Focuses on a thing (a reason) you don’t yet know. - Je veux savoir pourquoi.
→ Focuses on the why-clause itself (why it happened, why you did that, etc.).
In many contexts, you can choose either; connaître la raison sounds a bit more like “know the underlying reason”, while savoir pourquoi feels a little more conversational and direct.
Because it comes after veux, which is vouloir conjugated:
- vouloir + infinitive = to want to do something
- Je veux connaître… = I want to know…
- Je veux partir. = I want to leave.
- Je veux comprendre. = I want to understand.
Only the first verb (vouloir) is conjugated (je veux). The second verb (connaître) stays in the infinitive, the “dictionary form.”
Some French verbs need de or à before an infinitive, but vouloir does not.
- Correct: Je veux connaître la raison.
- Incorrect: Je veux de connaître la raison.
Compare:
- Je veux partir. (no preposition)
- J’essaie de partir. (needs de)
- Je commence à partir. (needs à)
So vouloir + infinitif is always without de or à.
It depends on context.
- Stating a personal desire (to yourself or in narration): Je veux connaître la raison. is perfectly neutral.
- Making a request to someone (especially someone you don’t know well or in a formal setting): Je veux… can sound demanding.
For polite requests, people usually say things like:
- Je voudrais connaître la raison. (I would like to know the reason.)
- J’aimerais connaître la raison.
- Est-ce que je pourrais connaître la raison ?
So the sentence itself is fine; just be careful using Je veux… directly to someone as a request.
In IPA: /ʒə vø kɔ.nɛtʁ la ʁɛ.zɔ̃/
Broken down:
- Je → /ʒə/ (soft zh sound like “measure”
- a weak schwa)
- veux → /vø/ (close to English “vuh” but with rounded lips; final x is silent)
- connaître → /kɔ.nɛtʁ/ (3 syllables: ko–nɛ–tr; the final -e is silent, but tr is pronounced)
- la → /la/
- raison → /ʁɛ.zɔ̃/ (French guttural r, then -son with a nasal vowel /ɔ̃/, so you don’t fully pronounce the n)
Spoken smoothly: ʒə vø kɔ.nɛtʁ la ʁɛ.zɔ̃.
Raison is feminine:
- la raison (not le raison)
- une raison
- cette raison
Its gender affects:
- The article: la, une, cette
- Any adjectives: une bonne raison, la vraie raison
In Je veux connaître la raison, you see the feminine gender in the article la.
Yes. If the context already makes la raison clear, you can replace it with la:
- Full: Je veux connaître la raison.
- With pronoun: Je veux la connaître. = I want to know it.
Notice the word order with two verbs:
- The pronoun goes before the infinitive, not at the very end:
- Je veux la connaître. (correct)
- Je veux connaître la. (incorrect)
Negative (present):
- Je ne veux pas connaître la raison.
→ I don’t want to know the reason.
Past (imperfect – ongoing desire):
- Je voulais connaître la raison.
→ I wanted to know the reason / I was wanting to know the reason.
Past (completed moment of wanting, rarer in speech):
- J’ai voulu connaître la raison.
→ At some specific moment, I tried/decided to know the reason (often sounds like a brief, completed attempt).
For most storytelling, Je voulais connaître la raison is the natural past form.
Traditionally, connaître is spelled with î (connaître), and that’s still the most common spelling you’ll see in textbooks and formal writing.
- Historically, the circumflex often marks where an s used to be (like hôpital vs English hospital).
- Modern spelling reforms allow connaitre without the circumflex, but many people still prefer connaître, and teachers often insist on this form.
So you should learn and use connaître with î, even though you might occasionally see connaitre.