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I am investigating the use of 知道 in the past tense. As "知道了“ does not clearly mean "knew" but could be more closely translated as "now I know!", a change of state from not knowing to knowing. How would one translate "I knew"? (As in, I did know before, but now no longer do)
Thanks in Advance!
Do take note that some sentence meaning otherwise under special context.
"知道了" is a good example.
Even 知道 carry out the meaning of "know", but "知道了" in some conversions mean "okay"(noded).
For example：
Q：“如果经过超市，顺带买瓶酱油” If you happens to pass the store, buy me a bottle of soyasauce.
A：“知道了！” Okay （or you can reply "好的!"）
In different dialect such as Cantonese, sometimes it uses as "understood" rather than 清楚了， 了解了, 明白了
我知道了, 你是说如果把醋倒进去它就会溶掉。 Now I understood, you mean if you pour in vinegar, it will melt.
Because 过 in Mandarin carry the meaning "over/pass"(instead of before) in certain conditions, so you can't use it. As mentioned by @Alex, you can't "un-learn", "de-notify" something.
In case of "know", to say "I already know that", you can't say, "知道过” ， but "我【已经】知道了”， “我【早】知道了”。
However, you can say "I learn it before but I forget".
这把戏， 我从前【学过】， 不过我忘了。
