Tenses

Two meanings of "meet" and "know"... yet the sentences were bare...

I think for clearer understanding of the spoken language one needs to use the same words as the questioner.

Questoner:-  Know,

Answer:-  Knew, known.

Questioner:-  Meet.

Answer:-   Met.

Tallulah Tam wrote:

Pieanne, (or anyone) what would you take the following exchange to mean:- Question:- "Did you ever meet him?" Answer:-  "Yes, I met him five years ago."

The question here implies some previous discussion of "him", which eliminates the ambiguity – e.g.

It's a beautiful painting, isn't it?
— Yes, it is.
I believe the artist lives in Sicily now.
— Yes, that's what I've heard too.
Did you ever meet him?
— Yes, I met him five years ago.

MrP

Anonymous,  I answered that question some time ago.

Know  =  Present tense.

Known =  Past participle.

 So "I know him" is correct.  (you are talking about NOW)

"I know him for five years" is in the past, so it is not a correctly worded sentence.

 You need to put HAVE in the sentence.

 When you introduce HAVE into the sentence the word "know" becomes "known"

Therefore the correct sentence is "I have known him for five years."

(Don't worry about what the Germans do, this is what we do. )

Dear Mr. P.

Imagine this scene:-

Two women are sitting in a bar in Palma de Mallorca chatting.

One woman notices a man across the room looking their way. She leans over to the other woman and says:-

"Have you ever met him?"

The other woman relpies, "Yes I met him five years ago."

The first woman then asks "Where?"

The second woman states "At a conference."

Or this:-

Same scene.

First woman: "Do you know him?"

Second woman: "Yes, I have known him for five years."

First woman:  "How do you know him?"

Second woman:  "I am married to him."

Same scene.

First woman:  "Do you know him?"

Second woman:  "Yes, I knew him five years ago."

First woman:  "Oh, what happened?"

Second woman:  "We got divorced."

In each case follow up information is required for clarification but there is no implication that there was previous discussion with him.

Respectfully yours,

Tallulah