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French Expression
| Meaning | without his/her knowledge | |
| Register | normal | |
| Pronunciation |  |
[ah so(n) eh(n) su] |
| IPA | [a sɔ̃ nɛ̃ sy] | |
Usage notes: À son insu means "without his knowledge" or "without her knowledge." It’s commonly used in legal proceedings, crime news, and other situations for talking about something that happened – good or bad – without someone being aware of it.
Par exemple…
| Thomas a été victime d’un pickpocket à son insu. | Thomas was pickpocketed without his knowledge. | |
| À son insu, Aline est devenue une source d’inspiration pour toute l’équipe. | Without realizing it, Aline has become an inspiration to the whole team. |
Variations
Son is the third-person singular possessive adjective, and can be replaced to reference things that happen without other people’s knowledge.
- à mon insu (without my knowledge)
- à ton insu (without your knowledge)
- à notre insu (without our knowledge)
- à votre insu (without your knowledge)
- à leur insu (without their knowledge)
Par exemple…
| L’entreprise a annulé mon contrat à mon insu. | The company canceled the contract without my knowledge. | |
| Les étudiants ont été filmés à leur insu. | The students were filmed without their knowledge. |
Synonym: inconsciemment (unconsciously)
À l’insu de + noun
You can use this construction to talk about someone else’s lack of knowledge; for example:
- à l’insu de Claire (without Claire’s knowledge)
- à l’insu de mes parents (without my parents’ knowledge)
- à l’insu du professeur (without the teacher’s knowledge)
Etymology
The word insu comes from Old French insceu, from the Latin word inscius which means "not knowing."
You can see that insu consists of the prefix in– followed by su, the past participle of savoir (to know), so it’s as if it’s the past participle of a (non-existent) verb meaning to not know: "insavoir." (Note that there is actually a French verb with this meaning: ignorer.)
Insu does not exist as a stand-alone word – it’s found only in à son insu and the other fixed expressions explained here.
Related lessons
- À – preposition
- Possessive adjectives
- Ignorer conjugations
- Savoir conjugations
- Past participles
- Crime and justice
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