何も知らない。— Can you read this sentence and understand what it means?

[Sinyaven]

Regarding the ら that confused you:

~ない is a suffix which negates the preceding verb. The preceding verb is 知しる, that you seem to not have learned yet. 知しる is a godan verb, so to add ~ない, you need to change the verb to end in an あ sound: 知しる => 知しら, and then ~ない can be attached to it.

Therefore, 知しらない means, as you guessed correctly, “to not know”. This is also called “verb conjugation”.

(for the sake of completeness: to prepare ichidan verbs like 出でる to accept the ~ない suffix, you just have to drop the る at the end - 出でる => 出で; 出で + ない => 出でない = “to not exit”)

[TofuguKanae]

@powerserge

いつでも is used more for ‘any time,’ いつも for ‘always’, and 全然 for ‘never’.

@Leebo

With a negative verb いつも would mean never. But the ones in that category can always change with negative verbs.

Also wanted to mention that unlike いつでも and いつも, 全然 isn’t necessarily time-related, especially used with non-action verbs. Though, it still emphasizes the negativeness of the sentence!

ex)
全然ない = “There isn’t any.”
全然そんなことない = “It isn’t true at all.”
(something you’d say when you get a compliment, to show your modesty)

Also, it’s common to use 全然 in positive sentences, which some people say isn’t a proper use of 全然, but people often do so anyway (even famous novelists like Akutagawa or Soseki have used this way) — in that case, it puts emphasis on the verb or scale.

ex)
全然大丈夫だよ = “It’s totally fine.”
まだ全然あるよ “There’s still plenty.”

You might have known this, but it has kind of different nature, so wanted to point that out (also thought 全然 might be an interesting topic!)

@alphysH

なにもちらない is my reading guess

Nice try! The other reading (kun’yomi) for 知 is “shi,” so this would be しらない.

For the meaning, the particle も is as you said basically “too.” However, when it’s after 何 meaning “what” and is followed by a negative verb, it turns 何"what" into “nothing” — so the sentence 何も知らない means “I know nothing” or “I don’t know anything.”

For the ら, @Sinyaven gave us a great explanation of katsuyo (conjugation).

[powerserge]

@TofuguKanae

Yeah, I have been told that using 全然 like in 全然大丈夫 is slang so I tend to steer clear.

[AnimeCanuck]

やった！ あてました！

はい、分かった。