Breakdown of Nie znam jej.
nie
no / not
znać
to know (someone or something)
jej
her (Genitive: after nie + verb, and in the n-form after prepositions)
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Questions & Answers about Nie znam jej.
Why isn't there a word for "I" in this sentence?
In Polish, the verb ending tells you who is doing the action. The verb znam already means "I know". You could say Ja nie znam jej, but Polish speakers usually drop the word ja unless they want to heavily emphasize that "I" don't know her.
Why is the verb znam used here instead of wiem?
Polish has two different verbs that mean "to know". You use znać (which becomes znam for "I know") when talking about knowing people, places, or being familiar with something. You use wiedzieć (which becomes wiem) only for knowing facts or pieces of information.
Why is the word for "her" jej instead of ją?
This is a very important rule in Polish: because the sentence is negative. If you said "I know her" as a positive sentence, it would be Znam ją. But whenever you use nie to negate an action, the object of the sentence must switch to the Genitive case. The Genitive form of "she" is jej.