知, 識 and 明白: knowing a fact, a person or the meaning

我今日先知喎 says the speaker only learned something today. The missing information is supplied by the conversation. The sentence does not claim they have acquired a practical skill or met a new person.

For practice, write a short fact in English on a card, then use the recorded line as a reaction to learning it. Change the fact and keep the reaction. Notice that 今日先 locates when the information became known; it is not part of a general definition of 知.

我唔識佢 denies knowing the person. It is different from saying you did not understand the person’s last sentence. You might understand a stranger perfectly well and still be able to say you do not know them.

Words.hk also records 識 for knowing how to do something. In that use, look for the activity after it. A learner should save both kinds of example rather than deciding that 識 only concerns people. The written question below illustrates the skill use; it is not additional audio from the Auntie clip.

我完全明白要做啲咩 says the speaker fully understands what needs doing. It does not claim that the task has already been completed or that the speaker is able to carry it out. Understanding instructions and achieving the result remain separate.

得喇明晒 is a much shorter acknowledgement: the speaker says they understand it all. 明 appears in other complete expressions too, including 得我哋先明㗎, where the understanding is limited to the group. Keep the wider sentence when interpreting who shares the knowledge.

Ask which claim you want to make. Is it about a fact becoming known, familiarity with a person, a skill, or understanding an explanation? That decision is more useful than translating I know before deciding what you know.

The dictionary senses overlap, especially around knowing and understanding, so this table is a beginner guide rather than an exhaustive boundary. If you are learning a longer expression, preserve its actual wording instead of replacing one verb because the English translation looks similar.