knew
- 1Past tense of know.
He knew the city well after living there for a decade.
The sailors knew a storm was coming long before it hit.
Note
A past tense that stands on its own, with no helper verb: she knew, they knew the way. After have or had the form changes to known, as in they had known for years. Every meaning of know travels with it, including the archaic euphemism for sexual relations, still heard in knew her in the biblical sense. Putting it after have produces the nonstandard participle, not this form.
- 2Past participle of know. Nonstandard and colloquial; the standard form is known.
He admitted he should have knew the rules before signing the form.
We would have knew about the delay if anyone had called us.
Note
Speech that borrows the past tense for the participle slot: I've knew, would've knew. Fiction uses it to catch a character's voice, from Emerson Hough's The Man Next Door (1916) to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937) and Steve Lopez's The Sunday Macaroni Club (1999). It marks speech as nonstandard, so in careful writing the form after have or had is known. Keep this one for dialogue.
knew is a form of know
know, verb: To have information about something in your mind, to be aware that it is true, or to be informed of or about it. Full entry
- Spelling
- know → knew: irregular (no -ed)
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