connaissais

Connaissais is the imperfect indicative form of the French verb connaître, meaning to know. It is used to express a past state of knowing, familiarity, or repeated past knowledge. The form can correspond to je connaissais or tu connaissais, depending on the subject, both conveying “I knew” or “you knew” in the past.

The imperfect is formed from the stem connaissance con­naiss-, derived from the verb connaître, and the regular imperfect endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient. For connaître, the stem in the imperfect is ennead to ainsi: je connaissais, tu connaissais, il connaissait, nous connaissions, vous connaissiez, ils connaissaient. The form connaisais itself indicates the past, rather than a completed action, and is commonly used to set background information or habitual past states in narrative.

Usage notes and nuances: Connaissais emphasizes that the knowledge existed over a period in the past, rather than implying a single completed discovery. It contrasts with the passé composé j’ai connu, which marks a specific moment of knowing or meeting someone. In literature and storytelling, the imperfect including connaissais helps portray familiarity with places, people, or facts, or a general sense of past circumstances.

Related terms include the infinitive connaître, the noun connaissance (knowledge, acquaintance), and the past participle connu. Understanding connaîtrais as a hypothetical form (conditional) and connaître’s other tenses helps distinguish nuances in past narratives and descriptions.