Don't Stop Saying I DON'T KNOW In English!

73,462 views ・ 2022-07-26

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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So I've been doing a little bit of research.
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I was curious, and I wanted to know
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what the most common response that people would give
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if they didn't know the answer to a question.
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So over the last few months I've kept track.
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And the most common response is the English phrase,
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I do not know.
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More precisely, people usually say, "I don't know."
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They use the contraction.
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Or informally, they'll say, "I dunno."
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That's the fastest way to say that you don't know something.
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But I thought for variety, it would be interesting
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for you if I taught you some alternatives.
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So in this English lesson
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I'll teach you eight more ways to say
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I don't know in English.
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(upbeat music)
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If you look behind me here, you can see
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that a few of the branches on this tree are broken.
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And if you asked me this question,
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"Bob, what happened to your tree?"
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And if I didn't know the answer,
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I could use one of the following four phrases.
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I could say, "I don't have a clue."
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I could say, "I haven't got a clue."
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I could say, "I have no clue."
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Or I could just say, "No clue."
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I like the last one.
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It's really short and sweet.
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This isn't actually true though.
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I do actually know what happened to this tree.
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We had a windstorm the other night
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and a few of the branches couldn't handle the speed
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and force and strength of the wind, so they snapped.
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Sometimes we order pizza, but we order too much,
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so I put the leftovers in the fridge,
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and then the next day I'll think to myself,
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"I'll have a slice of pizza.
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"That will be really, really yummy."
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And I go to the fridge and the pizza's all gone,
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so I say to my children, "Who ate the pizza?"
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And they could respond with one of three phrases.
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They could say, "I have no idea,"
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or, "I've got no idea,"
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or simply, "No idea."
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Once again, the last one is very informal
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but it's my favorite one.
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No idea.
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"Who ate the last slice of pizza?"
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"No idea, Dad."
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I'm sure you've been
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on a long trip before with a friend or a relative,
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and after driving for a while, they might ask you,
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"Hey how much longer before we get there?"
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And a very common response
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if you don't know the answer would be to say,
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"Your guess is as good as mine."
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This is very common.
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I say this a lot to my kids when we're driving.
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"Dad, how much longer?"
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And I'll say, "I don't know.
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"Your guess is as good as mine."
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Basically what this means is, I don't know,
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so if you kind of guess how much longer it is,
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that'll be just as good an answer as the one I would give,
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because I don't know what to say.
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So you could say, "Your guess is as good as mine."
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Sometimes someone will ask you a question and you know
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that you used to know the answer,
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but you can't think of it in the moment.
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Maybe you're in math class and the teacher says,
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"What is pi to two decimal places?"
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And you know you learned that a while ago,
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but you just can't remember it.
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A good response would be to say this.
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"I'm drawing a blank."
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When you say, "I'm drawing a blank,"
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it indicates that you don't know the answer,
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but it also indicates that you used to know the answer
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or you just can't think of it in that current moment.
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So, you could just just say, "I'm drawing a blank."
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03:00
So I mentioned the phrase,
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I have no idea, but there's two variations
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on this phrase that you can use
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if you want your English to sound a little cooler,
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and those are the phrases,
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I don't have the faintest idea,
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or, I don't have the foggiest idea.
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Now, the first one I've heard quite a bit recently.
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The second one is a little more rare,
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but they are both accurate English phrases that you can use
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if you don't know something.
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You could say, "I don't have the faintest idea,"
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or, "I don't have the foggiest idea."
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Sometimes someone will ask you a question
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about something that might happen in the future.
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They might ask a question like this.
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"Do you think the president will win the next election?"
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And a great way to say I don't know
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in that situation is to use the little question,
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"Who knows?"
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"Do you think the president will win the next election?"
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"Who knows?"
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"Do you think when we go on the trip
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"we'll need to bring a lot of money?"
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"Who knows?"
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So when someone asks a question
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about the future and you don't know the answer,
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this is a great way to respond, to simply say, "Who knows?"
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Another way to say
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I don't know is to simply say, "Beats me."
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Maybe someone asks you this question.
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"Do you think it will rain today?"
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You could say, "Beats me."
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It might rain.
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It might not.
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This is a little more informal.
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It's not really slang and it's not really rude,
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but it is a very quick and easy response
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that you might use with someone you are familiar with,
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like a friend or a brother or sister.
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"So do you think it's going to rain today?"
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"Beats me."
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This last example actually is very rude,
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and it's to use the question, "How should I know?"
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Instead of saying, "I don't know."
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Let's imagine a couple of children are talking
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before Christmas and one of the kids says
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"Do you think we'll get lots of presents?"
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The other kid could answer very quickly
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and rudely by saying, "How should I know?"
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They could have just said, "I don't know."
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They could have said, "I don't know.
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"Maybe Mom and Dad bought us something cool.
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"Maybe not."
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But if they want to be rude
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and a little bit harsh, they would use the question,
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"How should I know?"
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Kind of funny, eh?
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They answer a question
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with a question to indicate that they don't know.
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Well, thank you so much
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for watching this English lesson
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about how to say I don't know in English
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if you're tired of saying I don't know all the time.
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Remember though, I don't know
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or I dunno is the most common way to respond.
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So if that's what you want to do, go ahead and do that.
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There's nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know,"
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or, "I dunno."
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But if you want to add some variety,
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use some of the phrases that you've learned in this lesson.
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Thanks so much for watching.
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Remember if you're new here, don't forget to click
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that red subscribe button and gimme a thumbs up
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if this video helped you learn a little bit more English,
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and if you have the time
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why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson.
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(upbeat music)
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