Know to do something

[whocanhelpme]

[h=2][/h]

Hi everyone!

I want to ask you about the sentence : "He knows to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".

My Vietnamese friend said that he had never heard about "know to do" and the sentence was wrong. It must be : "He knows how to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".
However, I looked up the word "know" with Oxford dictionary and I saw know to do something with the example:
"Does he know to come here (= that he should come here) first?". This makes me wonder whether the sentence can be right with the meaning: " He knows that he should repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".

Please help me find out the error of the sentence and explain the phrase: "know to do something".

Thank you very much. (and please help me check out my errors in this post, thank you a lot).​

 

[Tarheel]

It depends on context what is right and what is wrong. In your sentence you need to say He knows how to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart.

 

[emsr2d2]

"Does he know to come here first?" means "Does he know that he must come here first?" It asks whether someone is aware of a fact. Your example about the car talks about someone knowing how to do something. They're not the same.

 

[Tarheel]

To elaborate on what has already been said:

Hi everyone!

I want to ask you about the sentence : "He knows to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".

My Vietnamese friend said that he had never heard about "know to do" and the sentence was wrong. It must be : "He knows how to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".
However, I looked up the word "know" with Oxford dictionary and I saw know to do something with the example:
"Does he know to come here (= that he should come here) first?". This makes me wonder whether the sentence can be right with the meaning: " He knows that he should repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart".


​

The sentence "He knows to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart" means he is aware that that is what should be done. So, yes, in the proper context that is correct English. However, what is more likely is: "He knows how to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart." (I would hope so. ;-))

Remember that context (and what you want to say) makes all the difference.

 

[whocanhelpme]

Thank you very much. The sentence is from a set of questions to find out the errors of sentences. And its answer is " knows how to", But from what you 've said (The sentence "He knows to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart" means he is aware that that is what should be done. So, yes, in the proper context that is correct English.) so The answer for this question is wrong and there are no errors in this sentence?

 

[Tarheel]

To know how to do something is to understand the means of doing it. To know what should be done is to know what is necessary in order to do something. (Of course, a person can know both things.)

 

[whocanhelpme]

Thank you again. So I will take your answer as the sentence with no errors.

 

[Tarheel]

I am not sure what you mean by the sentence with no errors, but hopefully you have learned something.

 

[whocanhelpme]

:lol: I mean the sentence "He knows to repair the carburetor without taking the whole car apart" is right so the answer from the set of questions to find out the errors of sentences is not persuasive.

 

[Barb_D]

The problem with questions like that is that you don't know what was in the mind of the question writer.
I'm 95% sure the writer meant for you to identify it as an error, and was not thinking "He understands the fact that he should repair the carburetor without dismantling the entire car" and was instead thinking "he is aware of the process to repair the carburetor without dismantling the entire car."

 

[Tarheel]

I am sure Barb is right. (Any mechanic anywhere knows you don't take the car apart to fix the carburetor.)

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not a mechanic and I'd be fairly certain you don't need to take the car apart to fix the carburetor. That's not to say that I have the faintest idea what the carburetor does or where to find it!

 

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


1. Although Mona is only 10 years old, she knows how to get home from the party herself. (That is to say, she knows the two buses to take so that she can get home by 5 p.m.)

2. Although Alice is almost 18 years old, she knows to get home before 10 p.m. (If she doesn't, her parents will not let her go to the movies with a boy again for six months!)

 

[Tarheel]

TP, they should pay you to think up that stuff. (That's a good example of the different usages.)