知之甚少

zhīzhīshènshǎo

idiom #24,841

Meanings

1 to know very little about
2 to have limited knowledge of

Characters

it / of (classical particle)

very / extremely

Examples

我对量子力学知之甚少。

Wǒ duì liàngzǐ lìxué zhī zhī shèn shǎo.

I know very little about quantum mechanics.

他对这个地区的历史知之甚少，所以犯了很多错误。

Tā duì zhège dìqū de lìshǐ zhī zhī shèn shǎo, suǒyǐ fàn le hěn duō cuòwù.

He knew very little about the region's history and thus made many mistakes.

我们对宇宙的起源仍然知之甚少。

Wǒmen duì yǔzhòu de qǐyuán réngrán zhī zhī shèn shǎo.

We still know very little about the origin of the universe.

Tips

grammar

知之甚少 follows the classical pattern: 知 (know) + 之 (it/object marker) + 甚 (very/extremely) + 少 (little/few). The 之 refers back to the topic being discussed, often introduced by 对...

Stroke Order

知 zhī

之 zhī

甚 shèn

少 shǎo