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

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Message-ID: <20250827144757.26599d50@foz.lan>
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 14:48:10 +0200
From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@...nel.org>
To: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
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

Em Wed, 27 Aug 2025 05:28:52 -0600
Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net> escreveu:

> 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.

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