knew

Knew is the simple past tense of the verb know. It indicates that someone had knowledge or awareness about something at a definite time in the past.

Grammatical notes: know is irregular. present: know; past: knew; past participle: known. Knew is used with time references such as yesterday, last week, or at that moment in the past. For ongoing or completed knowledge in relation to another past event, the past perfect is used: I had known him before the accident. In conditional clauses, the past tense 'knew' appears in the if-clause: If I knew the answer, I would tell you.

Examples: "I knew the answer when you asked." "Did you know she was coming?" "They knew it was risky."

Pronunciation: /njuː/ in most dialects, with the initial n followed by a 'you' sound.

Origin: from Old English cnawan; related to Old High German kennen, Dutch kennen; cognate forms across Germanic languages.

Semantic notes: 'knew' contrasts with 'know' and 'known' and indicates knowledge in the past, as distinct from present knowledge. It can appear in reported speech and narratives.