"The majority of the inhabitants knew about the game."
Translation:La plimulto el la loĝantoj sciis pri la ludo.
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Why can't I use koni here? I wanted to say "La plajmulto el la logxantoj konis la ludon."
The use of koni in this context implies that they are acquainted with the game.
That is how I interpret the English statement, though. I guess what I'm trying to say is how is "knowing about" a game different from "being acquainted with" a game?
Well, going by the same distinction between "koni" (kennen) and "scii" (weten) we have in Dutch, I think the distinction here is indeed quite subtle. In fact, I think the use of "koni" also makes sense here. Certainly in Dutch, you would be more likely to say "De meeste inwoners kenden het spel" than "De meeste inwoners wisten van het spel af", although both are possible.
That seems alright to me, except that I would use "loĝantaro" (singular) there. If it's not accepted, you might want to report it.
Well, presumably you're talking about the inhabitants of a particular, single place. It would therefore just be about just the single group of inhabitants, so -aro, not -aroj. It's like saying "The people of the island" rather than "The peoples of the world".
Is la optional? The help text gives me the impression it's optional but that might not mean anything
Does this mean about a specific instance of a game, like the game next Tuesday at 8 in the city stadium, or a game in general, like having heard of baseball?
Would the question above have a different answer if it was koni instead of scii?
There's three "la"s in the sentence, but based on your subsequent questions I take it you're asking about the "la" of "la ludo", correct? I think it's not optional, in the sense that the meaning becomes different if you leave it out (you would still have a grammatically correct sentence; just one with a different meaning).
I think it could both be a specific instance or a game generally as it is written. If it were "koni" rather than "scii" (and without "pri" I guess), I think it would have to be a game generally; it's strange, after all, to know a specific instance of a game in the sense of being (well) acquainted with it. (Some exceptions may be imagined, though. Famous chess games, for instance.)
While both plimulto and plejmulto get translated to "majority", there is a difference.
If you compare which of two things have something more, you use plimulto, because either one has more, pli. That is the case here: those who knew and those who did not.
If you have more than two things, then use plejmulto because one has most, plej, of something. Say there has been in a multi-party country a parliament election where one party won half of the seats: La partio X gajnis la plejmulton, the party X won the majority.
