Speaker 1: Somebody asked me the other day how many phrasal verbs
there are in English. That's a tough question, so I said,
beats me. And then she said, but you're an English teacher.
I don't know. I have no clue how many phrasal
verbs are there. Who knows.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight fifty eight.
How to say you don't know in English? Hello, and welcome.
Thanks for tuning in. Let me ask you something. What
do you usually say when you don't know the answer
to something in English? I know it's not good to
answer my own question, but if you're like a lot
of people, you probably say I don't know, and hey,
that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with I don't know.
By the way, the most common and casual pronunciation of
I don't know is I don't know, I don't know.
The stress comes on the eye, and the tea sound
at the end of don't gets dropped, don't becomes don't,
and when you put that all together, you get I
don't know. I don't know. When you use this phrase,
make sure you stress I I don't know, Otherwise the
other person won't understand what you mean. I don't know.
That's the only correct intonation for this phrase. So if
your friend asks, Hey, how many drinks did Jack have
last night? You can tell her I don't know. You
know what? Native English speakers have a lot of ways
to say that they don't know, and I'm going to
guess you also have various ways to say you don't
know in your native language, too, right, I mean, nobody
speaks like a textbook in any language. That's why today
I want to share some fun and natural ways to
say I don't know, the way native speakers really talk.
So let's dive in. One of the most casual and
kind of funny ways to say you don't know, is
beats me, Like when your favorite side team beats their
rival team. The question beat me? I lost to that question? Yeah,
beats me, like I have no idea. It sounds very casual,
maybe even a little sarcastic. And remember the intonation here
beats me, distress is on me, And there's an extra
kind of syllable there right beats me, like you're singing.
So if someone says, hey, why is the train so
late today, you can shrug your shoulders and say, beats me,
I've been standing here for twenty minutes. It's very conversational
and you'll hear it all the time, especially in the US.
Another common one is I have no clue, like a
detective who is new on the case. I have no clue,
and notice the stress here, I have no clue. The
stress is on the word no, Like someone asks who's
calling you from that weird number? You can reply I
have no clue. I'm not answering it. You can also
say I have no idea or just no idea. It
has the same meaning, just a slightly more neutral tone.
The stress is on no and idea no idea. Like
your coworker shows you an error message on their computer
and asks you, hey, do you know how to fix this?
You can say, no idea, I'm terrible with computers. The
next one is who knows. It's like saying I don't
know and I can't imagine anyone else knows? Who knows?
And if you may have noticed, the stress is on
both words with a pause, between them who knows, Like
if your sister asks you, why is Dad in a
bad mood? You can answer with who knows. The last
one is search me. Literally, if you searched me, if
you searched my brain, you wouldn't find the answer. But
to be honest, search me is kind of old school slang.
It sounds like how teenagers talk in those old nineteen
fifties movies, like Hey Bobby, how come Tommy quit the
chess club? Search me? He didn't tell anyone? Okay, let's recap.
When you don't know, you can let someone know by
using the following phrases from this lesson. Again, keep in
mind the pronunciation and stress I don't know beats me,
I have no clue, I have no idea, no idea,
who knows? And search me, which again comes under the
category of good to know, but not good to use.
Unless you want to sound like a nineteen fifties teenager.
Try using one of these next time instead of just
saying I don't know. It's a great way to sound
more natural and more confident in your everyday English. So
let me ask you which of these phrases do you
like the most. Come and let me know. On Instagram
at Happy English and why or leave a comment on
the blog, and keep in mind the best way to
remember English like this and any other word or phrase
in English, is to take that word or phrase write
it in a sentence that's true for you or true
in your world. Then memorize your sentences and remember to
check out my AI tutor. It's a great way to
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checked by me. To learn more, well, just visit Myhappy
English dot com and choose podcast lesson eight fifty eight. Remember,
learning another language is not easy, but it's not impossible,
and I'm here to help you on your journey.
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