You know is a spoken filler: people use it to pause, look for the right word or ask the listener to understand what they mean. Its second meaning is “you remember”: it reminds the listener of a person or place you both know: You know Anna from accounting? Don't write you know in emails or essays. In speech, including a speaking exam, one or two sound natural, but if you put it in every sentence, it becomes a verbal tic, the way some people overuse like.
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You know + person/place? (= remember?); …, you know, + explanation; You know, + opinion
- You know the café near the station? It's closed for repairs until May.
- I just needed a break, you know, some time away from emails and meetings.
- It's a small town in the south, you know, near the border with Portugal.
What changed
First versionDear Mr Hill, I couldn't finish the report because, you know, my laptop broke.
RevisionDear Mr Hill, I couldn't finish the report because my laptop broke.
In conversation, you know fills a pause and invites the listener to agree. In an email to your manager, it sounds careless and even seems to hint that the reader already knows it all. The filler was simply removed; the rest of the sentence stayed the same.
The similar phrase as you know is fine even in a formal email: As you know, the office will be closed on Friday. It introduces a fact the reader really knows. Casual you know in the middle of a sentence doesn't refer to any such fact: it's a pause or a request to follow what you mean.
Your turn
Where's that thing for opening wine bottles, ___, the one with a metal spiral?
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you know — The speaker has forgotten the word corkscrew and describes the object, hoping the listener will guess. That calls for you know. As you know introduces a fact you both already know, and it doesn't fit in the middle of describing an object.
Tell a friend some news about someone you both know. Start with a question with you know to remind them who you mean, then add the news.
You know Oleg from our English class? He's just got a job in Dubai.
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