Help me please convey the sense correctly. I am not sure that 'unknown city' is correct. I want to describe the city which I am going to visit for the first time. I am not familiar with this city.
unknown city, city unknown to me, unfamiliar city?
Learn English – A city which is not familiar to me
adjectivesphrase-usage
Best Answer
While unknown and unfamiliar both mean the same in this context, I think, the latter one has some flair of being personalized. If you say 'unknown', I'm afraid it may be generalized.
Maybe, because 'unfamiliar' has come from the word 'family', someone's family? Taking a human example makes it clearer --It's possible that I know Sam, but I'm not 'familiar' with him. I don't know how he is. In other words, I know Sam, he's Kelly's brother; but, I'm not familiar with him; so whether you do business with him, it's your take. Don't consider my opinion on that!
Also, if something is 'unknown', it might be unknown to the world; but if something is 'unfamiliar', you immediately make things personal? Unfamiliar to someone?
over...
This makes me think. If you are visiting 'unknown' place, you may not find any information about it, but if you are unfamiliar with some place, you may have some information. I'm not familiar with New York City, but The Big Apple is not unknown to me!
But again, as I see, both the words have been used in this context. My answer is just a try to get subtlety of it.
But yes, if you define that it's unknown to me, it works!