Stop saying “I don’t understand”: What to say instead

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on

what to say instead of "I don't understand" when you are having a

conversation with someone and you didn't hear what they said, or you really

didn't understand what they said, either because the concepts were too complex,

or the vocabulary was, you know, more than you know. So, I want to state right

at the beginning, this is meant to be an encouraging video. Of course you will

say "I don't understand". I say "I don't understand" all the time. But what I'm

doing in this video is providing you with more tools, more phrases that you

can use for a variety of situations. Okay. So hopefully you find this video

useful. Let's not waste any more time and begin.

Now, if you really just didn't hear what the person said, Maybe because they

spoke in a low volume, you're in a loud place, or you didn't really hear what

they said, because the vocabulary they used, you know, they used a word in the

middle that you didn't understand. And sometimes all you hear is that one word,

and you forget, and don't pay attention to the rest of the sentence. So very

simple, polite, instead of saying "I don't understand", you can say "sorry".

Now, "sorry" can work by itself. You could just say "sorry". Okay, or you can

start with "Sorry, I missed that." Like, I missed it. I just... I didn't hear it.

Or I didn't get what you said. And I'll get to that one later. In addition to "I

missed that", you can say "I didn't catch that". "I didn't catch that."

Right. So I missed it. I didn't catch it. "I didn't get that." "Sorry, I

didn't get that."

Okay, next, very honest: "Sorry, I didn't hear you." Okay, so they were

speaking too low. Maybe they were speaking really quickly. Maybe you're in

a loud room? "I didn't hear you." "Sorry, I didn't hear you." Next:

"Sorry, I didn't follow that." So again, to follow. So someone is speaking, and

they start on a track of conversation. And ideally, you should be walking

beside them in the conversation. But sometimes you don't understand because

their reasoning is very weird, or it doesn't make sense. Or maybe you didn't

hear that. And you say, "Sorry, I didn't follow that." Next. "Sorry. I don't

follow." "I don't follow that." That just means you're admitting that I don't

know what you're saying. Basically, usually "I don't follow" refers to the

logic that the person is using in their speech in their conversation. So if

they're talking about a complex topic, maybe they're talking about genetics,

and they're trying to explain something to you, you have no background in

genetics, and you look at them like "sorry, I don't follow". "I don't

follow." "Sorry, I'm not following." So all three of these. "I didn't follow

that." "I don't follow." "Sorry, I'm not following."

Okay. And you can also say, "Sorry, what was that?" "Okay, so what was that?" It

really goes back to you didn't hear them properly? Or they said a word that you

missed. "Okay. What was that?" Or: "Sorry? What did you just say?" Okay, so

again, maybe you weren't paying attention, your mind was in a different

place. And they say something to get your attention and you say, "Sorry, what

did you just say?" Okay. All right. Next, when you're listening, and you

know, sometimes you are not paying attention, you can admit fault, right?

You can admit that. "Sorry, I wasn't listening." Now, if you say this to your

wife or your husband, it's probably a bad idea. But they say honesty is the

best policy. So sometimes you might just want to admit and say "sorry, I wasn't

listening. My mind was in a different place." Or "I had my headphones on and

my podcast was more interesting than your conversation". Don't say that part.

But, you know, I wasn't listening. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." So

this could be in a classroom setting and you know, very few students will admit

that they weren't paying attention to their teacher. But this is something you

can say, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention". So maybe you are in a group

setting with like six friends, five friends around a table. And your friends

are talking about something. And they say, "Karen, what do you think?" And

Karen's looking at her phone. "Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What?

What?" Okay. Or "sorry, my mind was elsewhere", or "my mind was somewhere

else". So you can say "elsewhere". This just means somewhere else. Not here. My

mind was in a different place.

Okay. So you can admit that you weren't paying attention, that you weren't

listening, or that your mind was, you know, you were thinking about lunch

later or something. Next, if you didn't hear something, or you didn't understand

something, but you're interested, or even if you're not interested, you still

want to know what the person said. You can ask for repetition. Ask people to

repeat. Okay. So, here we go. "Could you repeat that, please?" Okay. "Could you

say that again?" "Want to run that by me one more time?" And I realized I didn't

spell "repetition" correctly. Okay. So you're, you're seeing like a live

correction on air over here. Re... pe...? How do you spell it? Re... pe...

ti... tion? Repetition. Yes, just like that. Alright, so we pause the video,

and now we unpause the video.

We're back. "So could you repeat that?" Please? "Could you say that again?"

"Want to run that by me one more time?" So "run that by me one more time". This

is an idiomatic question and idiomatic way to ask someone to repeat something

so "wanna", it's like, "Do you want to?" Or "can you?" So depends on your

familiarity with the person, how comfortable they are with you, and you

are with them? If... before you say something like this, but "wanna run that

by me one more time", like, here are your words, they're running [vroom], can

you run them by me one more time, so I can catch them?

Okay. Next, some casual ways. If you're familiar with the people that you're

hanging out with, if you're friendly with them, if you have a good

relationship with them, and you feel comfortable to be casual, to be

yourself, to not be formal, you can use some of these. So "blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah". "Hold on. What?" Okay, so "hold on" means like,

stop, or wait. And you can just say "what?" So repeat after me. "Hold on.

What?" Okay, next. "Wait, what?" So again, "Hold on. What?" or "Wait, what?"

Say it fast. "Wait, what?" Good. "Whoa, slow down." If the person is speaking

very quickly, you might want to ask them to slow down. You can give one "Whoa".

Or you can give many whoas, right? So you can say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

whoa, slow down."

Okay. If you are very comfortable with the person, "what the heck are you

talking about?" Okay, so you just don't understand what they're saying because

of their argument is strange, or they started talking about something with no

context and you are lost. So another one, you can say, "Well, I'm lost."

"What's happening?" "What the heck are you talking about?" So "heck" is a more

neutral way to say "hell", right? "Hell" is a little stronger. "What the hell?"

"What the heck are you talking about?" You can also just say, "Stop right

there." Okay, so sometimes you don't care what they're talking about. Because

you're like, I don't understand what... why this is important. I don't

understand the argument. I don't understand why you're talking about

this. So "stop right there". And similar to "what the heck are you talking

about?" "I have no clue what you're saying." "I have no idea what you're

saying." Okay, so you are just admitting, in a casual situation like I

I don't know what you're talking about, so "I have no clue what you're saying".

"I don't understand it."

Okay. And finally, you can clarify. Right? So instead of saying you don't

understand what a person is saying, maybe they use a word, or they use an

argument. And you say, "Well, wait a minute. What did you mean by that?"

"What did you mean by that word?" or "What did you mean by that argument?"

And finally, to clarify, this is also a form of asking for repetition. But

"could you repeat the last part again?" "Okay, I just want to make sure I got

what you said." I just want to clarify that I understand your argument. So you

heard what they said, right? But you just want to make sure that you

understand it 100%. "Could you repeat the last part again?" You can also say,

"could you repeat the last thing you said?" Those are all possible.

So one more time, you can say "sorry". So just repeat one more time, everything

after me. I missed that. I didn't catch that. I didn't get that. I didn't hear

you. I didn't follow that. I don't follow. I'm not following. What was

that? What did you just say? I wasn't listening. I wasn't paying attention. My

mind was somewhere else. Could you repeat that? Please? Could you say that

again? Wanna run that by me one more time? And now the fun stuff. Hold on.

What? Wait, what? Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. With that, heck are you talking

about? Stop right there. I have no clue what you're saying. What did you mean by

that? Could you repeat the last part again?

Hopefully now you have a lot more tools in your English vocabulary toolbox that

you can now use in your future English conversations. So "I don't understand"

is one of the first phrases anyone learns in a new language, but: time to

level up. So hopefully you did that today. And if you want to make sure that

you consolidate everything that we studied here today, check out the quiz

on engvid.com to check your learning. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my

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next time, thanks for clicking, and I hope things are a lot clearer for you

now.