linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] Documentation: management-style: Reword "had better known the details" phrase

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Message-ID: <877byp9f63.fsf@trenco.lwn.net>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 05:28:52 -0600
From: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
To: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@...nel.org>
Cc: Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@...il.com>, Linux Kernel Mailing List
 <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>, Linux Documentation
 <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>, Linux Kernel Workflows
 <workflows@...r.kernel.org>, Jonathan Neuschäfer
 <j.neuschaefer@....net>,
 Fox Foster <fox@...dis.ed.ac.uk>, Federico Vaga
 <federico.vaga@...a.pv.it>, Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@...radead.org>, Stephen
 Rothwell <sfr@...b.auug.org.au>, Konstantin Ryabitsev
 <konstantin@...uxfoundation.org>, Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] Documentation: management-style: Reword "had better
 known the details" phrase

Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@...nel.org> 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.

> 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.

Languages are fun.

jon