知之甚少 (zhī) — to know very little about something; to have scant knowledge of something
Definition
A formal set phrase meaning 'to know very little about something,' used in writing. Note the literary 之: in this phrase it stands in for the topic ('of it / of that'), and the whole idiom is a fixed chunk — do not swap characters.
verb
to know very little about somethingto have scant knowledge of something
Examples
- 知之甚少。Wǒ duì zhè ge wèn tí zhī.I know very little about this problem.
- ,知之甚少。Guān yú nà jiàn shì, wǒ zhī.Regarding that matter, I know very little.
- ,知之甚少。Tā gāng xué zhōng wén, duì zhōng guó de wén huà zhī.He just started learning Chinese, so he knows very little about Chinese culture.
Appears in
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