unfamiliar

unfamiliar — adjective

1. not known or recognized because you have never seen, met, or encountered it befo

1.形容詞B1
釋義

not known or recognized because you have never seen, met, or encountered it before — for example, a face you do not recognize, a street you have never walked down, or a custom you have not come across.

例句

The librarian saw an unfamiliar face at the door and asked if she could help.

attributive: an unfamiliar face

Yara felt lost in the unfamiliar streets of the old city.

同義詞
  • strange

    adds a feeling of oddness or unease that 'unfamiliar' does not necessarily carry

  • unknown

    suggests something has never been discovered or learned, often with a sense of mystery

  • foreign

    typically means from another country; metaphorically, anything alien to one's experience

反義詞
  • familiar

    the direct opposite — known because seen or experienced before

  • known

    recognized or identified from previous experience

文法句型

unfamiliar + noun

unfamiliar to + person

用法筆記

Attributive before a noun ('an unfamiliar face') and predicative with 'to' ('the face was unfamiliar to me') are both natural in English. The subject of the sentence is the thing not known — not the person.

常見錯誤

❌I am unfamiliar to this software.
✅I am unfamiliar with this software.
💡'unfamiliar to' means the software does not know you; use 'unfamiliar with' when you are the one lacking knowledge.

2. having no knowledge, skill, or experience of a particular subject, activity, or

2.形容詞B1
釋義

having no knowledge, skill, or experience of a particular subject, activity, or situation — for example, not knowing how to use a piece of software, never having studied a topic, or being new to a role or environment.

例句

Reuben was unfamiliar with the software, so he asked a colleague for help.

unfamiliar with [something]

Many new students are unfamiliar with the campus rules during their first week.

同義詞
  • new to

    less formal and suggests recentness rather than simple lack of knowledge — 'I am new to this software' implies you just started using it

  • unacquainted with

    more formal and less common in everyday speech — 'unacquainted with the details'

  • ignorant of

    stronger and often negative in tone, suggesting a failure to know something one should know

反義詞

文法句型

be unfamiliar with + noun phrase

用法筆記

Always used predicatively after a linking verb (be, feel, seem) with the preposition 'with'. The subject is the person who lacks knowledge, and the topic they do not know follows 'with'. Never used attributively before a noun — compare an unfamiliar topic (sense 1, the topic is not known to anyone in general) with I am unfamiliar with the topic (sense 2, I specifically lack knowledge of it).

常見錯誤

❌I am unfamiliar to this process.
✅I am unfamiliar with this process.
💡'unfamiliar to' reverses the relationship; the thing is unfamiliar to the person, not the person to the thing.
❌He is an unfamiliar worker with the system.
✅He is unfamiliar with the system.
💡'unfamiliar' cannot be used attributively in this sense.