Em Wed, 27 Aug 2025 05:28:52 -0600 Jonathan Corbet <[email protected]> escreveu:
> Mauro Carvalho Chehab <[email protected]> writes: > > > As a non-native English speaker, "had better know" looks really > > weird on my eyes, as, at least for me, "know" is a verb. > > > > Heh, I just discovered today by looking on a dictionary: > > > > https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/know > > > > That know can informally be used as a noun (a shortcut for > > knowledge?). > > "know" is a verb as used in the sentence in question too. That's new to me. I would expect that a verb locution like that to have the final verb ending with -ing, written in the past participle, or have "to" before it. After looking for this particular grammatical construction, it seems that "had better" is an exception: https://teachtranslatetravelrepeat.com/semi-modal-verbs-had-better/ where the main verb remains in infinitive without "to" prefix. > > For me as a non-native English speaker, when one writes: > > > > They "most likely know" (know here is a verb) > > > > or: > > They "had better knowledge" (knowledge is a name) > > > > Things become clearer. > > But neither of those say the same thing. Read "had better know" as > "really should know" and you get a lot closer. I guess I didn't realize > that it was such a strange construction. I bet very few non-native English speaker developers would understand it like that. Thanks, Mauro
