English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I will give you a clue, it's one word: poetry. You will know what I mean.
I thought about it and the sentence "You will know what I mean." doesn't seem to be correct, because you are giving a hint to something, but you're not trying to convey a meaning. So instead of saying that I think you should say "You will know what I am hinting at." Am I correct in saying this? What are some better alternatives?
"You will know what I am hinting at."
This sounds like something Latka/Foreign Man might say. It is literally correct, but not idiomatic or commonly said.
"You will find out what I mean, soon enough" or "You'll see what I mean" are more common phrases. Then the question is "are they misused?"
The word "meaning" itself can have a very general meaning. Anything hinted at, or outright stated, is part of the meaning. From this wide scope of a definition, once you know what the speaker means, then you understand everything they said. So, "hinting" is a specific description, while "meaning" is a more general one, but not incorrect.
If you're trying to say you will understand, in time, what I mean, you'd say 'you'll see what I mean'.
If you're being secretive and teasing someone that you have more knowledge, you could say 'you'll find out soon (enough)'.
'You'll know what I mean' is incorrect in idiomatic English.
