Know-how

“Know-how” is the practical knowledge of how to do something useful.

Today's story: Locusts in Africa
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Know-how

Today’s expression is a unique little combination of words in English. The expression is, “know-how.” And we write it as two words with a hyphen in between. Know-hyphen-how. Know-how. And it refers to knowledge, yes, but a special kind of knowledge. Know-how is the practical knowledge of how to do something useful. Hence, know-how.

I emphasize practical knowledge to do something useful. It takes skill to paint a beautiful painting—but that’s not know-how. That’s talent or skill. But knowing how to paint a room with painter’s tape so you don’t accidentally get any paint on the ceilings—that’s know-how.

You heard it in context toward the end of the first half of this episode. I said that many countries in East Africa lack the equipment and the know-how to spray the locusts invading their farms. So, not only do they not have enough planes, but they don’t have the know-how. They don’t have the expertise, the skills, the knowledge to spray against the locusts.

Know-how is intangible. It’s not like a manual that’s written down, it’s like a body of practical knowledge. And you can say that a person has know-how, or that an institution has know-how. In my example, I was talking about countries. Uganda, for example, doesn’t have the know-how to fight this locust plague. There are not enough people in Uganda that have the practical knowledge to do it.

A single individual can have know-how. Many of you are probably good around the house: you can fix things when they break. I, on the other hand, lack the know-how to fix anything in my house. That’s not true. I have the know-how to repair small things. For example, this morning I discovered that the little chain that connects the rubber stopper to the handle on my toilet had come undone. I had the know-how to open the tank and fix that little chain. However, I would not have the know-how to deal with leaks or a broken furnace or anything electrical, for example. That sort of thing requires a level of know-how that I just don’t have.

Electrical is tough. From what I hear, it’s not that difficult. But it’s also not something you want to experiment with; it can be dangerous. If you have an electrical project, you really want to be working with someone who has the know-how to deal with electricity.

So now you can see that know-how can represent the body of knowledge that just one person, like an electrician, might have, or it can represent the body of knowledge that a group of people or an institution has built up.

Let’s take a few more examples. It’s common these days for big technology companies to buy smaller ones. Google bought YouTube; Facebook bought WhatsApp and Instagram. These are examples where the buying company wanted to integrate another company or another product into its own. That’s why Instagram and Facebook are so integrated. Other times, however, the buying company just wants to buy the code or, increasingly, the know-how of the employees.

Two of my favorite productivity apps on my phone were Sunrise, a calendar, and Wunderlist, a list-making app. Microsoft bought both of them, and they shut those old apps down. Why would Microsoft buy app companies and shut the apps down? Because what they were really buying was the know-how of the employees. As a buyer, Microsoft would get the code behind the apps, sure, but what they really got was all the institutional knowledge built up by these app companies about what features users want and how to deliver. More than anything, Microsoft wanted the know-how, so they could improve their own calendar and list-making apps.

JR’s song of the week

The song JR has selected for today is “My Lover,” by Birdtalker. It’s kind of a slower song, easier to understand, kind of mellow. The singer said that it, quote, “speaks to the importance of taking a step back, widening the lens, and taking a moment to look each other in the eyes and remember that we’re all we’ve got.” The song once again is “My Lover” by Birdtalker.


That’s all for today’s episode. I miss Sunrise. The only calendar app I really liked using, and Microsoft shut it down. I haven’t replaced it either. For whatever reason, I don’t really like Google’s calendar. I use Outlook for work, and I’d like to keep personal things and Plain English things separate. I’m still looking for a good replacement to Sunrise. Someday.

Before we close, I wanted to let you know how to get the video lessons for each episode. You heard me mention that today’s video lesson is about “by the” plus a quantity. Like, “cheaper by the dozen” or “desert locusts travel by the billions” or, “I buy paper towels by the case.” I made a whole ten-minute video lesson on exactly how to use this. And that is something that’s part of the Plain English Plain English Plus+ membership. I do that for every new episode, and we have a library of over 60 videos, all about how to express yourself in English. If this sounds like something that would be useful to you, then I’d really like you to visit Plain English PlainEnglish.com/Plus to read more about joining our membership. That’s PlainEnglish.com/Plus.

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Story: Locusts in Africa