I do not know. VS. Not that I know of.

Question

1) I do not know. VS. Not that I know of.

2) I do not care. VS. Not that I care.

I think that which ones in each number mean the same. What do you native English speakers think?

Thank you so much and have a good day.

MrGuedes · Accepted Answer

Their meanings are the same, but their usages are slightly different.

1) Compare "I don't know anything about sports" with "Not that I know anything about sports, but isn't Ronaldo playing on Real Madrid?". The first is a simple statemente. I don't know anything. The second one can be used to gently ask someone if they were wrong, but always recognising you know very little about sports, and you may be wrong. For example, I've just heard someone who knows a lot about sports saying Ronaldo isn't playing on Real Madrid. I know little about sports, but I know (at least I think I know) he is playing on Real Madrid, and I ask the person for confirmation with that sentence.

2) The same idea can be used here. Compare "I don't care about him anymore" with "Not that I care about him, but don't you think that will be too dangerous for him?". Once again, the former is a simple statement, whilst in the latter, you say you don't care about him, but you're actually caring a little about him at that moment, for example, because you heard someone saying he's going to do some radical activities, which are quite likely to cause serious injuries or death.

So, I hope you can see the difference now. Note still that, in each paragraph, you can replace the underlined expression in the latter sentence by the one in the former sentence (although, personally, I think the way I wrote it is better), but you can't do the opposite with the first sentence.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much and then what does the that function? Is that here a pronoun or a conjunction or something else? What do you think?

Thank you again and have a good day.

MrGuedes · Answer

I think this "that" is a conjunction. Saying, for example, "Not that I care about that" is kind of a short form for "I'm not saying that I care about that". Basically, that's what it means.

I do not know. VS. Not that I know of.

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