The method involves determining a cylinder pressure pattern (2) from a cycle resolved speed signal (3) of an internal combustion engine. A cylinder characteristic (4) is estimated from the cylinder pressure pattern and the cylinder characteristic is compared with a knock limit (5). A knock regulator (7) is regulated on the basis of comparison (6) of one or more actuating variables (8) of the internal combustion engine. The knock limit is adapted on the basis of a knock recognition (9) by a measured structure-born noise signal.
