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

So I've been doing a little bit of research.

I was curious, and I wanted to know

what the most common response that people would give

if they didn't know the answer to a question.

So over the last few months I've kept track.

And the most common response is the English phrase,

I do not know.

More precisely, people usually say, "I don't know."

They use the contraction.

Or informally, they'll say, "I dunno."

That's the fastest way to say that you don't know something.

But I thought for variety, it would be interesting

for you if I taught you some alternatives.

So in this English lesson

I'll teach you eight more ways to say

I don't know in English.

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If you look behind me here, you can see

that a few of the branches on this tree are broken.

And if you asked me this question,

"Bob, what happened to your tree?"

And if I didn't know the answer,

I could use one of the following four phrases.

I could say, "I don't have a clue."

I could say, "I haven't got a clue."

I could say, "I have no clue."

Or I could just say, "No clue."

I like the last one.

It's really short and sweet.

This isn't actually true though.

I do actually know what happened to this tree.

We had a windstorm the other night

and a few of the branches couldn't handle the speed

and force and strength of the wind, so they snapped.

Sometimes we order pizza, but we order too much,

so I put the leftovers in the fridge,

and then the next day I'll think to myself,

"I'll have a slice of pizza.

"That will be really, really yummy."

And I go to the fridge and the pizza's all gone,

so I say to my children, "Who ate the pizza?"

And they could respond with one of three phrases.

They could say, "I have no idea,"

or, "I've got no idea,"

or simply, "No idea."

Once again, the last one is very informal

but it's my favorite one.

No idea.

"Who ate the last slice of pizza?"

"No idea, Dad."

I'm sure you've been

on a long trip before with a friend or a relative,

and after driving for a while, they might ask you,

"Hey how much longer before we get there?"

And a very common response

if you don't know the answer would be to say,

"Your guess is as good as mine."

This is very common.

I say this a lot to my kids when we're driving.

"Dad, how much longer?"

And I'll say, "I don't know.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

Basically what this means is, I don't know,

so if you kind of guess how much longer it is,

that'll be just as good an answer as the one I would give,

because I don't know what to say.

So you could say, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Sometimes someone will ask you a question and you know

that you used to know the answer,

but you can't think of it in the moment.

Maybe you're in math class and the teacher says,

"What is pi to two decimal places?"

And you know you learned that a while ago,

but you just can't remember it.

A good response would be to say this.

"I'm drawing a blank."

When you say, "I'm drawing a blank,"

it indicates that you don't know the answer,

but it also indicates that you used to know the answer

or you just can't think of it in that current moment.

So, you could just just say, "I'm drawing a blank."

So I mentioned the phrase,

I have no idea, but there's two variations

on this phrase that you can use

if you want your English to sound a little cooler,

and those are the phrases,

I don't have the faintest idea,

or, I don't have the foggiest idea.

Now, the first one I've heard quite a bit recently.

The second one is a little more rare,

but they are both accurate English phrases that you can use

if you don't know something.

You could say, "I don't have the faintest idea,"

or, "I don't have the foggiest idea."

Sometimes someone will ask you a question

about something that might happen in the future.

They might ask a question like this.

"Do you think the president will win the next election?"

And a great way to say I don't know

in that situation is to use the little question,

"Who knows?"

"Do you think the president will win the next election?"

"Who knows?"

"Do you think when we go on the trip

"we'll need to bring a lot of money?"

"Who knows?"

So when someone asks a question

about the future and you don't know the answer,

this is a great way to respond, to simply say, "Who knows?"

Another way to say

I don't know is to simply say, "Beats me."

Maybe someone asks you this question.

"Do you think it will rain today?"

You could say, "Beats me."

It might rain.

It might not.

This is a little more informal.

It's not really slang and it's not really rude,

but it is a very quick and easy response

that you might use with someone you are familiar with,

like a friend or a brother or sister.

"So do you think it's going to rain today?"

"Beats me."

This last example actually is very rude,

and it's to use the question, "How should I know?"

Instead of saying, "I don't know."

Let's imagine a couple of children are talking

before Christmas and one of the kids says

"Do you think we'll get lots of presents?"

The other kid could answer very quickly

and rudely by saying, "How should I know?"

They could have just said, "I don't know."

They could have said, "I don't know.

"Maybe Mom and Dad bought us something cool.

"Maybe not."

But if they want to be rude

and a little bit harsh, they would use the question,

"How should I know?"

Kind of funny, eh?

They answer a question

with a question to indicate that they don't know.

Well, thank you so much

for watching this English lesson

about how to say I don't know in English

if you're tired of saying I don't know all the time.

Remember though, I don't know

or I dunno is the most common way to respond.

So if that's what you want to do, go ahead and do that.

There's nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know,"

or, "I dunno."

But if you want to add some variety,

use some of the phrases that you've learned in this lesson.

Thanks so much for watching.

Remember if you're new here, don't forget to click

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if this video helped you learn a little bit more English,

and if you have the time

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson.

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