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The phrase "話し手も相手も共通に知っている場合" was translated in this board as "When both the speaker and listener know the subject"

I dont understand 2 things about this sentence. What's the use of ni in this phrase. It doesnt seem to match with any of the uses of "ni" I know. Isnt 話し手も相手も共通 the topic of the sentence and should be marked with "は". And why "the subject" isnt before the 知っている verb and it isnt marked with を ?

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I understand "共通に" can be correspoond to "both."

"話し手も相手も共通に話題を知っている場合" = "When（場合） both（共通に） the speaker（話し手） and（も） listener（相手） know（知っている） the subject（話題(を)）"

"話し手も相手も共通に知っている場合" = "When both the speaker and listener know the subject"

"話し手も相手も知っている場合" = "When the speaker and listener know the subject"

The nuance of difference is quite week.

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共通に is an adverb modifying 知っている. It is added for emphasis. 話し手も相手も知っている場合 is also a valid expression differing only by nuance.

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  • if they have different nuances, could you make a literal translation of both phrases for the nuances to be more clear or the literal translation of both nuances is the same? I appreciate the info in your answer and the time you took to answer but I dont quite get it
    – Pablo
    Commented Feb 12, 2017 at 23:42
  • Sunny's "both" is perfect.
    – Craig Hicks
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 15:12

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