Ich kenne meine Schwäche.

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Breakdown of Ich kenne meine Schwäche.

• mein: my
• kennen: to know
• die Schwäche: the weakness

Questions & Answers about Ich kenne meine Schwäche.

Why is it kenne and not weiß? Aren’t both “to know”?

German has two main verbs for “to know”:

• kennen = to be familiar with someone or something

  • people: Ich kenne ihn. – I know him.
  • places: Ich kenne Berlin. – I know (am familiar with) Berlin.
  • things/abstracts: Ich kenne die Regeln. – I know the rules.

• wissen = to know a fact / piece of information

  • Ich weiß die Antwort. – I know the answer.
  • Ich weiß, wo er ist. – I know where he is.

In Ich kenne meine Schwäche, you’re talking about being familiar with your own weakness as a characteristic of yourself, not remembering a specific fact. That’s why kennen is correct and Ich weiß meine Schwäche sounds wrong in German.

What grammatical case is meine Schwäche in, and why?

Meine Schwäche is in the accusative case.

• kennen is a verb that takes a direct object.
• The direct object in German is normally in the accusative.

Structure:

• Ich – subject (nominative)
• kenne – verb
• meine Schwäche – direct object (accusative)

You don’t see a form change on Schwäche itself (feminine singular nouns often look the same in nominative and accusative), but the grammar role is still accusative: it’s what is being “known.”