Learn English Vocabulary: 9 Other Ways to Say "I DON'T KNOW!"

- In this English lesson,

you're going to learn other ways to say,

I don't know.

Some of these are specific to work environments,

but everyone,

including you will benefit from taking this lesson.

The lesson is going to work like this.

We'll start with an example,

so you can see the phrasing context.

And then I'll explain it a little bit

so that you fully understand it.

We'll also have some more examples too.

If you find this useful,

then please click that like button

and share this with a friend.

My name is Jack from To Fluency and let's get started.

(bells chiming)

Here we're starting with a retraction.

So I don't know becomes, I dunno.

This is informal,

but it is commonly used.

And you're going to hear this all the time.

If you watch movies and TV shows in English,

let's actually practice this because by practicing,

you can better understand it when you hear it.

Okay. So let's start at the end.

No.

No.

De,

de,

dunno,

dunno.

And then with some intonation, repeat after me.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Again, this is more informal and you don't have to use this,

but it's really useful for comprehension

(bell chiming)

Jet, who are Preston playing tomorrow?

Hmm.

To be honest,

I'm not sure.

This is a good one to use

because it's not very direct.

When you say I'm not sure

In some cases, this means you're not certain,

but in the example I gave,

it just means, I don't know.

I'm not sure. You can also say,

I'm not sure, but I'll look it up.

Or these days you can simply ask Siri,

Hey Siri.

(phone beeps)

who are Preston North End play in tomorrow?

- [Siri] Preston North End takes on Derby County tomorrow,

at 10:00 AM.

- Takes on.

That's an interesting phrase of work, to take on,

which means to play.

And you'll also notice that they pronounced it Derby County,

but the correct pronunciation is Darby County.

Now, did you also notice

that I'm using are here instead of is.

Who are Preston North End playing tomorrow?

Preston North End are playing Darby County.

In American English,

You'll hear Preston is, Preston is Darby County tomorrow.

(Bells chiming)

- Hello, Diabetes Pizza.

Hey, are you guys open on Christmas Eve this year?

Great question. My boss isn't here right now.

Can I get back to you?

Now this is a good example

of one that is used in business settings.

And when dealing with customers.

You can just say great question.

Great question. Which is a very indirect way of saying,

I just don't know.

Notice that the employee also said,

can I get back to you?

Can I get back to you?

And this means to contact somebody later to give them the

information that they asked for.

Another example of this is,

did that guy ever get back to you

on the estimate for fixing our roof?

(belling chiming)

Excuse me, could you tell me where the library is?

Oh, I'm, I'm not the best person to ask that question.

Oh, you visiting here too.

No, I live here.

I just hate libraries.

Sorry about the strange example.

But if you say I'm not the best person to ask that,

it means again, that you don't know,

but because you're not the right person

to ask for that specific situation,

the person presumed that he didn't know where the library

was because he didn't live there.

And therefore he wouldn't know.

Sometimes people ask me,

what should I do to prepare for a job interview?

And I say, I'm not the best person to ask that

because I don't have specific knowledge

about how to get through interviews.

(bells chiming)

- Holy, did you see that?

the swinger hit a Baltimore chop off the dish

that looked more like a Texas leaguer?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Now this one is more direct,

to have no idea of what someone is talking about

means you have zero knowledge of what they're saying,

and you can't understand anything that they're saying.

And just for a reference, I'll leave that sentence,

the baseball jargon in the description.

So you can read more about this,

but I don't know what it means

now to have no idea can also be used in a different way.

It can be used for emphasis when talking about an

experience, whether this is good or bad or hard or amazing,

for example,

Oh, hey, how was your marathon?

Oh, you have no idea how hard that was.

My body's still aching five days after running it.

Before we move on to the next one.

If you're enjoying this so far,

remember to click that like button.

(bells chiming)

- Oh, I haven't got a clue what I'm going to get her

for a birthday.

Well, what does she like doing?

What does she like in general?

I don't know.

This is similar to, I have no idea.

And again, this is quite direct.

Let's just practice the sentence. So repeat after me.

I haven't got a clue.

I haven't got a clue.

You can also say I haven't a clue,

but I think this is a little bit more informal

and it's probably specific to the US.

I haven't a clue.

I haven't a clue. And another similar phrase is to say,

I'm clueless.

I'm clueless about what to get her for her birthday.

(bells chiming)

- Oh, hey, do you know where the library is?

I'm sorry, I don't live here.

This is where you apologize for not knowing something.

You say, sorry,

because you don't have the right information

because people like to apologize

if they don't know something

and you might know this is quite common in the UK to

apologize for things like, oh, sorry, sorry.

Were you going to go first? Sorry. Sorry.

And I noticed this happening in the US too.

So instead of saying, I don't know, you can just say,

I'm sorry, I don't work here or I'm sorry,

I don't live here or I'm sorry, I don't have a clue.

(bells chiming)

- I've been meaning to ask you.

Who's Paul dating at the moment?

Don't ask me, I don't care.

This is the opposite of apologizing,

where you're saying to somebody.

Well, don't ask me that question.

Why are you asking me?

And it can often be used when you're irritated

that someone has asked you this question.

Here's another example.

Hello? The Diabestes pizza.

- [Phone Operator] Hello. Quick question.

Why did you get rid of the meat feast pizza.

- Don't ask me it. It wasn't my decision.

and I have no idea why they did it.

(bells chiming)

- What do you think they're building here?

My best guess is a new apartment complex,

but I could be wrong.

My best guess is. This is when you don't know something,

but you wanna estimate, or you wanna have a guess

about what the right answer is.

Another example is,

Oh goodness, do you think?

do you think he'll run for president again?

I'm not sure and my best guess is, yeah, he will.

Please share my lessons.

Sorry. That's been quite directed there.

What I to say was, if you enjoyed this lesson,

then please share it with a friend again,

just click that little arrow button

and send it to your friends or post it on social media.

What I want you to do now is to leave a comment

with other examples of how to say, I don't know,

or other examples of the ways that we have used in this

lesson and then check out the description

because I'll have some great resources for you,

including my free book,

the five step plan for English fluency.

I'll also leave the phrases that we have used today,

and a link to my website,

where you can read more about this subject.

Thank you for spending this time with me

while you're here on my channel.

Why not take some more lessons?

I'll leave some on the screen for you now. Okay.

Thanks again. And I'll speak to you soon.

Bye-bye.