The amplitudes for the rare decay modes K ± → π ± ℓ + ℓ − and K S → π 0 ℓ + ℓ − are studied with the aim of obtaining predictions for them, such as to enable the possibility to search for violations of lepton-flavour universality in the kaon sector. The issue is first addressed from the perspective of the low-energy expansion, and a two-loop representation of the corresponding form factors is constructed, leaving as unknown quantities their values and slopes at vanishing momentum transfer. In a second step a phenomenological determination of the latter is proposed. It consists of the contribution of the resonant two-pion state in the P wave, and of the leading short-distance contribution determined by the operator-product expansion. The interpolation between the two energy regimes is described by an infinite tower of zero-width resonances matching the QCD shortdistance behaviour. Finally, perspectives for future improvements in the theoretical understanding of these amplitudes are discussed. Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Theory overview 5 2.1 The structure of the form factors in three-flavour QCD 5 2.2 Properties of the form factors at high momentum transfer 8 3 Low-energy expansion of the weak form factors 12 3.1 The form factors at one loop 12 3.2 The form factors beyond one loop 16 4 Extraction of a +,S and b +,S from recent data 16 5 The two-loop representation of the form factors 20 5.1 Construction of the form factors to two loops 21 5.2 Comparing W +,S;2L (z) and W +,S;b1L (z) 23 6 W + (z) beyond the low-energy expansion 25 6.1 The contribution from the two-pion state 26 6.2 Intermediate states with higher thresholds 28 6.3 The contribution from the factorized Q 7V operator 33 6.4 Evaluations of a + and b + 34 7 Summary, conclusions, outlook 35 7.1 Extracting a +,S and b +,S from recent data 35 7.2 The low-energy expansion of the form factors to two loops 35 7.3 Contribution from the two-pion state 35 7.4 Matching with the short-distance regime 36 7.5 Conclusion 36 A Numerical values 37 B The computation of ψ +,S (s) 37