T4XE (corrigez-moi svp)

[lone harness]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[vestal ruin]

Que here is a conjunction that introduces a relative clause. For example:
Je ne savais pas que tu habitais ici > I didn't know (that) you lived here

If you want to use "that" as an actual pronoun, you need cela or ça.
Je ne savais pas ça = I didn't know that (literally)

However, in French we most often don't use the word for "that" in this sentence and simply say "Je ne savais pas"

To help differentiate between these two English uses of "that", try to replace it with "this": if the resulting sentence is correct, that means it corresponds to ça. If not, it likely corresponds to que.

[gilded idol]

Oh i got it, thanks for the explanation

[compact glacier]

You also have a fun verb in French that doesn't exist in French: ignorer (well, the verb ignore does exist, but doesn't get used for what I'm about to talk about)

In French, the verb ignorer, in addition to having the meaning of "to ignore someone" ALSO means "to not know". I find that it sounds a bit fancier than just saying "ne pas savoir".

So, to say "I didn't know that" you can simply say "je l'ignorais"

[gilded idol]

thank you 🙂

[tawdry moat]

it is also omitted a lot in english ' i didnt know you lived here.... '.

[compact glacier]

You're kinda dealing with two different types of omissions

"That" as a relative pronoun or conjunction can be left out in some circumstances, but this is not the case in French.
For instance

• « Je suis heureux __que__tu sois là »
• « *Je suis heureux tu sois là »
  and
• « C'est la personne __qu'__on a vue »
• « *C'est la personne on a vue »

compare to English

• "I'm happy that you are here"
• "I'm happy you are here"
  and
• "That's the person that we saw"
• "That's the person we saw"

The demonstrative pronoun "that" can also be left out in English, but I personally find it happens less often in English than in French. In Nired's example, "je ne savais pas", English speakers might say "I didn't know", but if we're thinking of a specific fact, I think most speakers would more naturally say "I didn't know that" (although without 'that' is technically fine).