Savoir-faire is the knack of doing and saying the right thing with people, so that nobody is embarrassed and the moment still feels easy. It is not the same as being “good at stuff.” Know-how is for fixing a bike or running a shop; savoir-faire is for a dinner, a first meeting, a tense room. You choose the gift that fits, you drop a joke that will not land, you know when to talk and when to leave a silence alone. English borrowed the whole phrase from French and still writes it the French way, with the hyphen; it sounds a little educated, a little old-world, and you will meet it more in books and careful speech than in the playground. Though actually the French pieces are plain: savoir is “to know how,” faire is “to do.” People sometimes use it loosely for any kind of polish or style, but the centre of the word is social — how you move among other human beings.

社交手腕、待人處世的分寸