Usage of knew

Question

Hi.Can we use Knew with are ? Or do have to use Knew only with were ?Ex :- I knew you are biased ! Is this grammatically okay ?

GPY · Accepted Answer

For me it is not natural. I would only say "I knew you were biased!".

Please note that there should be no space before a question mark or an exclamation mark.

When you mention words, put them in quotes or italics, and do not add unnecessary capitals. For example, write this:

Can we use "knew" with "are"?

CalifJim · Answer

chalk towel 30Or do we have to use "knew" only with "were"?

We have to use the past after knew (that) and thought (that), and after most of their synonyms and other similar concepts (found out, noticed, believed, forgot, discovered, saw, felt, etc.). The number of exceptions must be in the neighborhood of one in many thousands, so it is a bad idea to get into the habit of using the present after these words.

Take a look at this analysis of usage over the past 200 years if you don't believe that 'knew' with the present is almost never used.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=knew+that+he+is%2Cknew+that+he+was&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cknew%20that%20he%20is%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cknew%20that%20he%20was%3B%2Cc0

Native speakers automatically adjust the time frame without even thinking about it, so the use of the past in these contexts does not mean that what is said to be known is no longer true.

CJ

Usage of knew

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