Knowing information or having information.

Lorenzo

Hello all, I have been wondering about this: Many Americans will say: "I did not know this information" or "I found out information about..." This usage of the word information in a frase does not seem correct to me. Or is it?... I would rather use: "I didn't have this information" or "I got information about..." Any experts? Thanks!

DavidCrosbie

I don't think we need to worry whether the collocations know information and find out information are 'correct' or not. They are not meaningless and, clearly, many native speakers don't find them unacceptable — at least not in casual speech.

If you're a native speaker of English, you can choose whether to use them or not. If you're not a native speaker, it's best to follow the majority. The Online OXFORD Collocation Dictionary offers these as the most popular collocations

VERB + INFORMATION contain | have Do you have the information I need? | retain, store James is able to retain an enormous amount of factual information in his head. database systems that process and store information | need, require | ask for, request | look for, seek | find, gain, get, obtain information gained from research | collect, gather The police are still questioning witnesses and gathering information. | receive | dig up Have you dug up any further information on the suspect? | extract, retrieve the difficulties of extracting information from government officials software that retrieves information from a variety of different sources | access Portable computers are good for accessing information while travelling. | download | disclose, give, impart, make available, provide (sb with), supply (sb with) a court order preventing an ex-employee from disclosing confidential information | leak Someone leaked information to the press. | pass on They passed on the information about the crime to the police. | circulate, disseminate an organization that collects and disseminates information about women in science | exchange The French and British police will exchange information on wanted criminals. | withhold It was improper of the broker to withhold the information from the stock exchange. | cover up, suppress | collate, organize | check | analyse | present The way you present the information is important. | publish | act on, go on At the moment we've very little information to go on.