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Thu 23 Oct, 2014 12:34 pm
As a foreigner who's never been abroad,
I've never met President of the U.S. in person.
But of course I know who he is, and I've seen lots of news about him.
Now, which would be correct for me to say?
1. I know Obama.
2. I know about Obama.
A friend of mine suggested that the second sentence makes sense,
but the first one doesn't really fit here for me.
Would you please help me tell tham apart?
In common speech, to simply 'know' a person means to be personally acquainted with that person, while to 'know of' or 'know about' a person means to be aware of their existence, without being personally acquainted with them.
@contrex,
So, I always should say 'I know of' Obama, so that the listener might not be mistaken. Thank you Contrex. I'm grateful to you all the time.
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