Stop saying "I Don't Know!"

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- Am I a douche?

I don't know.

Am I a douche?

I don't know.

Who am I?

I don't know.

Am I a douche, am I a douche?

I don't know.

Am I a douche?

I don't know.

Here are some other ways that you can say, I don't know.

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Let's imagine that you are with your friend

and you see someone, you're like,

(fingers snapping) that guy,

who's that guy?

She doesn't know.

But I mean, completely doesn't know.

These are the full expressions,

so we'll practice the pronunciation.

I haven't got the foggiest.

I haven't got the foggiest.

I haven't got the faintest idea.

I haven't got the faintest idea who that is.

I haven't got any idea who he is.

Mate, I haven't got any clue who he is.

Now, in my opinion, these are the most common ways

that you can say, I completely don't know.

So, if you stopped watching the video now,

you'd probably be fine, honestly.

So the full expressions are this.

I haven't got blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But, big but, we shorten everything.

So, the short answer for these is like this.

Not the foggiest.

Not the faintest.

This one, you can say not the faintest

or not the faintest idea.

That word's an option, again options.

That guy? No idea.

That guy?

No clue.

So, in summary, yeah, these are the most common way

to say, I completely don't know.

And the short versions are these with the purple.

They're fun, they're lazy,

they're natural sounding, great choices.

So, say them with me, practice your pronunciation.

Not the foggiest.

Not the faintest idea.

No idea, mate, no idea.

No clue, no clue.

Of those, which was your favorite to say?

Because all you need to boost your vocabulary for today,

is to learn one expression completely.

So, let's practice in a real situation.

I will ask you one question,

and you use your favorite response from this.

Remember, if you practice this, it becomes part

of your daily English.

Just practice.

So, I'll ask you a question,

you say one of these back to me.

Ready?

Oh, hi, glad I got you.

Do you know the capital of Sweden? Do you know?

Oh, hey, listen, oh that song is in my head.

Who sings that song? You know the one that goes,

♪ Du du du, dudurutu ♪

♪ Du du du, dudurutu ♪

Who sings that, do you know?

No?

Oh, Third Eye Blind, duh.

Oh, hi, quick question.

Is it possible to drive my car from here, in London,

to South Korea, do you know?

'Kay fine, I'll Google it, shall I?

So, again, this is all, if you don't know anything at all.

Zero things, nothing, but what if you are just not sure

about something, then what should you say?

If your friend asks you, "Is it gonna rain today?"

how would you know? How would you know?

All you can do is look at the clouds, you know?

(blowing) Not sure.

I'm not sure, that's the full expression,

but very commonly, we remove, I'm, we just say, not sure.

The next one, I'm not 100%.

You could shorten it to, not 100%,

that's fine too.

Honestly, I'm not the best person to ask.

Of course, you're not a professional,

so that's a good expression when you want to say,

what do you think I am? A weather person?

No. Or a great one, your guess is as good as mine.

I don't know any more information than you, so.

Okay now, the stronger ways to say I don't know.

There will be bad words.

So if you don't like swear words, just skip forward a minute

and you'll be fine.

Three of the most common strong ways to say I don't know.

I'm so bored, when can we go on holiday again?

Medium strength.

Mate, who knows? Who knows?

Second option, a bit stronger,

religious people don't like this one.

God knows!

The third and strongest option is very informal and vulgar.

Be careful who you say it to.

Fuck knows!

So again, choose your favorite response

and practice with me.

Add it to your daily English.

Oh, hi, what time are you gonna finish work today?

Oh hey, what do you think the Queen is doing right now?

Okay now, when you have no understanding of this thing,

and that's why you don't know,

say these things.

Fathom, that's the word which means understand.

So you can say, I can't even fathom, and it's like,

it's kind of like imagine

and understand together, kinda thing.

So you can use this before a sentence

which you don't understand,

like, I just, I can't even fathom why people voted for him.

I know, I know, it's beyond me how people still support him.

You can simply use them as exclamations.

Like, Mate, can you explain to me

why so many people like coriander in their food?

It's disgusting.

I know, it's beyond me.

Again, again, when you learn these expressions

from my videos, don't just make notes,

make examples using those expressions,

but make them relevant to your life.

If you're never gonna use them again,

you're gonna forget them,

but if you can make examples, using these expressions,

relevant to your life, then maybe you'll use it

in natural conversation.

And then it becomes part of your vocabulary.

Then you are awesome.

Okay, I you don't know your decision about something.

For example, if someone asks you a question,

asks for your opinion about something,

like mandatory military service,

we don't have this in the UK.

I know that some countries do, like Korea,

you guys have it for like two years, right? I think?

Anyhoo, what's your opinion about this?

Do you think that you should have it or not have it

or what do you think?

If you're like, I don't know,

say these things.

I'm on the fence about it.

For example, you're on the fence,

you haven't made a decision yet.

The same with, I haven't decided one way or the other,

that's also good.

And if you want to say, well, there are good points for

and good points against, you can say,

I'm in two minds, or I'm of two minds,

both are fine, doesn't matter, nothing matters.

Another really good one that you can use,

you could use it in this situation,

but you could also use it for other situations.

Let me show you.

Mandatory military service,

I might have to get back to you on that one.

I might have to get back to you on blah, blah, blah.

You want a little more time to make your decision.

You might hear this at work,

in the office for example.

And let's break it down.

Might, we know is maybe.

Have to, it's an obligation.

To get back to someone.

To respond.

So, we're just saying, maybe it's better

if I respond later.

I can take more time, make a decision,

that's a really good expression when you want to say that.

Also, like I mentioned, good for work environments.

If your boss asks you a difficult question,

or a question you don't know,

I've used this, if your boss wants to know, I don't know,

some information or numbers that you don't know right now,

this is a really good response.

I might have to get back to you on that one.

It's better than just saying, I don't know.

You're giving yourself time to inform yourself.

Now of course, of course, you can say, I don't know,

that's fine, it's not wrong.

Let's talk about pronunciation.

If you pronounce it like, I don't know,

you sound like a robot.

So try this.

I deneu.

Think of the pronunciation.

Schwa sound.

De, it's another schwa sound there, neu.

Deneu.

Now, be careful of that sound.

Now, I know, for some languages,

this sound, you might be saying it like, deneu, deneu.

Nah, hm-hm, not that.

Oh, be careful of your mouth shape.

It should change from uh to ooh.

Oh,

oh.

Now try it faster.

Oh.

Now say the whole word, deneu.

Deneu.

Again, you have options, I deneu,

schwa, deneu.

You could pronounce this like, I, I deneu, I deneu.

That's fine too, these are all options.

With English, there are many ways to pronounce things,

there's no one, perfect,

beautiful way to pronounce anything in English.

Just know, you have options,

choose your favorite, that's it.

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