しりません vs しっていません

金閣寺きんかくじがどこか知しっていますか。
Do you know where Kinkakuji Temple is?

Many beginners answer it as いいえ、知しっていません, which is very understandable but the correct “no” answer is いいえ、知しりません。

I think many people have learned the word “know” as 知しっています but 知しっています is not a simple, stand alone verb. It is 知しって（てform of 知しります）+ います. As this post explains, [てform] + います is used to describe an on-going state or condition for a period of time and [てform] + いません is its opposite, describing that a certain action/condition is NOT taking place at this particular moment. So 知しっていません sounds like “I knew it before, I will know it later but at this moment, I don’t know it,” which is not possible because as far as “knowing something” is concerned, there are only 2 on-going states, “not knowing” and “knowing” and these 2 can never be reversed.

As the above diagram shows, the verb 知しります/知しる describes the moment when you get to know something for the first time and this “getting to know” cannot be reversed. We may forget something but we cannot “un-know” something. So the state of “not knowing” before getting to know it is 知しりません. The state of “knowing” after getting to know it is 知しっています.

Other stative verbs in English

Just like “to know”, English has a few more stative verbs, which describe an on-going state or condition, rather than a dynamic action. These include to live/reside, to resemble, to wear, etc. They are usually translated into Japanese using [てform] + いる/います, so the above verbs are すんでいる, にている and きている respectively (Please note that “to wear” can be translated differently depending on what item of clothing you are talking about, but I will leave that explanation to this page).

the difference between きていません and きません

For the question:

Tシャツをきていますか。(Do you have a T-shirt on?)

If you don’t have a T-shirt on, you can say both:

いいえ、きていません。

and

いいえ、Tシャツを きません。

However, the meanings are quite different.

The first answer is “I don’t have a T-shirt on at this moment.”
The second answer is “No, I never wear a T-shirt” not just “at this moment.” And in that case, I would change the particle を to は (i.e. いいえ、Tシャツは きません) to emphasis that I am talking about T-shirts.

The use of the affirmative 知しります/知しる is very limited

As shown above, because the verb 知しります describes a very limited moment, the occasions you can use the affirmative verb 知しります/知しる are also very limited. Other than telling a synopsis of a story or something like that, there won’t be a time when 知しります/知しる (non-past) alone is used as the sentence ending verb.

It is usually used in the past tense such as:

こんなにおいしいものがあるなんて、はじめて知しりました。
I got to know for the first time that there was such a delicious food.

テレビを見みて、東京とうきょうで雪ゆきが積つもったことを知しった。
I got to know on TV that snow piled up in Tokyo.

or with an auxiliary phrase that adds some other meaning to the verb.

息子むすこはいつか秘密ひみつを知しるでしょう。
My son will get to know the secret one day.

こんなふうに息子むすこが秘密ひみつを知しることになるとは思わなかった。
I never thought our son would get to know the secret this way.

For more explanations about JLPT N5 level grammar items and vocabulary, please visit this page.