if I knowed

if I knowed pronunciation

/if ah NOHD/

Meaning

If I knowed is how some Southern and Appalachian speakers say if I knew. Knowed is know with a regular -ed past, same pattern as seed for saw. It shows up in regrets and what-ifs: if I knowed then what I know now, I'd have stayed home. Textbook English wants knew. Porch English still reaches for knowed.

How folks use it

• “If I knowed it was gonna rain, I'd have brought a tarp.”
• “If I knowed that boy half as well as I thought, I wouldn't have lent him the truck.”

Origin and etymology

Appalachian English sometimes flattens strong verbs into weak ones: knowed, seed, and the like. Wikipedia's Appalachian English notes knowed among those forms. Folk songs (Woody Guthrie, Townes Van Zandt) put knowed in print for rural voice. The pattern is old vernacular English, not a new invention.