grammatical expression: (not) as far as I know

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Today I would like to go over the expression: “as far as I know”. We can also use this expression in the negative: “not as far as I know”. This is used  when we want to talk about our knowledge of a certain situation but emphasize that we might be wrong about it because of a lack of knowledge. For example:

A: Where’s your boss right now?

B: As far as I know, he’s still in the budget meeting.

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A: How much is this table? Is the price still the same as it was last year?

B: As far as I know it is, but I’ll have to check to make sure.

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A: Does James have any children?

B: Not as far as I know. I’m pretty sure it’s just him and his wife.

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A: Do you have any allergies?

B: No, not as far as I know. The last time I had a checkup they didn’t say that I had any.

So, as you can see, this expression is often used in reponding to someone’s question. In all of these examples, person B is saying that to their knowledge as this point in time, the boss is still in the meeting, the price of the table is the same, James doesn’t have any children and they don’t have any allergies. However, they could be wrong about these things if something has changed without their knowledge.

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2 Comments »

  1. Noboru Said:

    Mr. Cadman
    You explained here about the negative case of “as far as”. Is it all right if I use; As far as I know he doesn’t have any child. I mean, can I use main sentence is negative. Is it weird sentence for native speakers?
    Noboru

    • Hi Noboru.

      Yes, the sentence you gave me is possible. We can say, “As far as I know, he doesn’t have any children.”

      We would have to use the plural form “children”, instead of “child”.


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