1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,420 What's the capital of Australia? 2 00:00:01,421 --> 00:00:01,694 I don't know. 3 00:00:03,606 --> 00:00:04,128 What do koalas eat? 4 00:00:04,129 --> 00:00:05,181 I don't know. 5 00:00:05,970 --> 00:00:06,578 Who's Dame Edna? 6 00:00:06,579 --> 00:00:07,579 I don't know. 7 00:00:07,723 --> 00:00:10,896 What are 27 better ways to say 'I don't know'? 8 00:00:11,520 --> 00:00:12,520 Man. Buggered if I know... 9 00:00:22,690 --> 00:00:49,594 G'day, you mob! I am Pete Smissen, the host of this channel Aussie English, and it is my goal at this channel to help you build confidence, speak fluently and take your English to the next level. In today's video, I'm going to teach you 27 better ways to say 'I don't know'. You're going to use that phrase a lot in any language, let alone English, but it's time to learn quite a few more variations, ok? You can do better than 'I don't know'. 10 00:00:49,990 --> 00:01:22,115 Before we get into it, guys, don't forget to check out my advanced English podcast at www.aussieenglish.com.au. Alternatively, you can do a search on any good podcast application for Aussie English and you will find it. This is a great way to improve your listening comprehension and take your English to the next level faster. And lastly, don't forget to smash that subscribe button, guys. Poke, give a little poke to that bell notification button, so that you can stay up to date with all of my advanced English videos just like this one. 11 00:01:22,171 --> 00:01:24,137 Anyway, let's get into it. 12 00:01:24,159 --> 00:01:47,563 Alright. So, number one, number one is: 'dunno', right? So, you've got 'I don't know', you can say that very well 'I don't know'. You'll know this sentence, but a better way of saying this is dropping the 'I', so you don't need to say the pronoun and you just say 'dunno'. 'Where is Pete? Dunno'. 13 00:01:49,980 --> 00:02:08,093 Number two: 'it beats me'. And again, you can drop the pronoun they 'it' and just say 'beats me'. It beats me, beats me, as in the question, beats me. I don't understand. I don't know, because that question beat me, right? It beats me. 'What's the answer? Beats me'. 14 00:02:08,178 --> 00:02:18,272 Number three, this is a polite one: 'I can't help you there' or we can drop the 'I' and just say 'can't help you there'. 'Excuse me, do you know where North Melbourne is? Sorry, mate, can't help you there'. 15 00:02:20,697 --> 00:02:34,690 Number four: 'to not make heads or tails of something', 'to not make heads or tails of something', you'll often hear this as 'can't make heads or tails of something'. 'Man, I can't make heads or tails of what this thing is'. 16 00:02:34,788 --> 00:02:44,735 Number five: 'clueless', 'clueless'. You literally have no clue, which is another one, you are clueless. It's two for one, I guess, 'no clue', 'clueless'. 'When he asked me the question, I was clueless'. 17 00:02:50,207 --> 00:03:04,474 Number six: 'to have no idea'. 'I have no idea'. 'No idea'. So, we can contract that down, 'I have no idea'. 'No idea'. 'I have no idea what you're on about, mate, absolutely no idea'. 18 00:03:04,499 --> 00:03:10,386 Number seven" 'don't ask me'. 'Is everyone eating at the restaurant? Don't ask me'. 19 00:03:10,458 --> 00:03:35,486 Number eight: 'God only knows'. 'God only knows'. And this is actually a three for one, ok? You're going to hear 'God only knows', 'Goodness only knows' and 'Lord only knows'. This is a sort of polite way of saying 'I've absolutely no idea'. 'What time's the footy match? Lord only knows. God only knows. Goodness only knows', this is something my grandma would say. 20 00:03:35,552 --> 00:03:50,301 Number nine: 'good question'. 'Good question'. You can say 'it's a good question' or you can drop 'it's a' and just say 'oh, good question'. 'Good question'. And it shows, you think the question is good, obviously, but you don't know the answer to it. 'What's the capital of Australia? Good question'. 21 00:03:54,378 --> 00:04:14,189 And number 10: 'how should I know?'. 'How should I know?'. This is said when you want to show that asking you that question was silly because you have no idea, right? 'How should I know?', 'why would I know?', 'how should I know?'. 'Who is the most famous Australian? How should I know, mate?' 22 00:04:18,339 --> 00:04:56,440 Alright, guys, let's take a quick break and I want you to give this video I like if you have already heard some of those expressions before for how to say 'I don't know', because that means you've been studying well and your English is levelling up fast, ok? So, give it a like if you know some of those and before we continue, I want you to take a break, I want you to read those expressions we went over and I want you to comment one of them down below in a comment, ok? The best way to learn vocab, to learn expressions is to use it straight away and get it in your head, ok? So, take one of those expressions you didn't know and comment below. Use it to learn it. 23 00:05:01,130 --> 00:05:03,970 Alright. Let's keep going. I've got another 10 expressions for you. 24 00:05:03,995 --> 00:05:27,914 Number eleven: 'I don't know the first thing about something'. 'I don't know the first thing about something'. This just shows you have absolutely no idea about that thing, right? So, for example: 'I don't know the first thing about cars and motors, I don't know the first thing about them'. 25 00:05:27,923 --> 00:05:52,196 Number 12, this is a common one, usually when you're asked to read something or interpret something and you can't do it, right? You don't know, 'it's all Greek to me'. 'It's all Greek to me'. As if you're someone who doesn't speak Greek and you're looking at it like, I don't know what this is, right? So, someone might say to you 'Pete, what does this computer code say?' And I might say: 'man, it's all Greek to me, no idea'. 26 00:05:53,690 --> 00:06:06,628 Number 13: 'no idea'. So, you can say 'I have no idea' and it may just be shortened to 'no idea', 'no idea, absolutely no idea'. 'Where's the closest pub? No idea'. 27 00:06:07,820 --> 00:06:26,525 Number 14: 'to not have a clue'. So, we've done 'clueless', we've done 'no clue'. And they can be also 'to not have a clue'. 'Which way do I go to Melbourne? I don't have a clue. You're barking up the wrong tree'. That's a good one for you're asking the wrong person. 'You are barking up the wrong tree'. 28 00:06:26,553 --> 00:06:34,993 Number 15: 'to not have the faintest idea'. 'Who's this guy? Mate, I don't have the faintest idea who he is'. 29 00:06:35,630 --> 00:06:58,120 Number 16: 'to not have the foggiest idea'. I guess the idea here would be that you have an idea of something when you know it, and if it's really foggy, you can't make it out, right? And, so you don't even have that as a foggy idea, as a kind of like an idea that's really obscure and hard to nail down. 'Mate, I'm lost. I haven't got the foggiest idea where I am'. 30 00:06:58,131 --> 00:07:15,689 Number 17: 'to not know something for the life of you', right? So, you don't know it. Even if you had to bet your life on it or your life was on the line, you have no idea. You don't know for the life of you. 'What's her name again? I don't know. For the life of me'. 31 00:07:15,742 --> 00:07:32,531 Number 18: 'search me'. 'Search me'. I guess that's like someone's come to me looking for an answer and I say, you can search me and you won't find that answer, right? 'Search me'. 'What's the best part about being an Aussie? Search me, mate. Search me'. 32 00:07:32,592 --> 00:07:56,220 Number 19: 'who knows?'. 'Who knows?'. This is like a rhetorical question, right? You're asking a question, but you don't actually want an answer to it. You're suggesting that no one knows, right? Or maybe that you should go and try and find someone who knows. So, someone might ask you a question 'guys, what's Pete's middle name?', and you might say 'who knows? Who knows?'. 33 00:07:56,630 --> 00:08:13,879 And the very last one, guy's number 20, number 20 is: 'your guess is as good as mine'. So, neither of us know, you can guess and it's probably as good as my guess would be. 'Your guess is as good as mine'. 'Where's the closest beach? Your guess is as good as mine'. 34 00:08:18,060 --> 00:08:49,047 Allright, guys. Good job! You just learned 20 expressions and now I have seven more for you that are informal slang that you can use in conversation, except three of these are incredibly rude. Well, they're not incredibly rude, but they're rude. They use the F bomb, the F word, and I'm going to save those for the podcast episode for this episode, ok? So, if you want to listen to those, go down below and click on the Aussie English Podcast episode, which will include these three ruder versions of saying 'I don't know', ok? And I'll see you then. 35 00:08:49,087 --> 00:08:51,700 Anyway, let's keep going with the other four. 36 00:08:52,310 --> 00:09:11,907 Number one: 'how on earth should I know?'. 'How on earth should I know?'. So this is just a derivation of 'how should I know?' and you can say 'on earth' to sort of emphasize it, right? 'How on earth should I know?'. 'How on earth should I know?'. 'What's the square root of a thousand? How on earth should I know?'. 37 00:09:12,410 --> 00:09:27,012 Two: 'how the hell should I know?'. So, you can sort of use different emphasising words like 'on earth', 'hell', and f*ck to emphasize that you don't know, right? 'How the hell should I know?'. 'What's your grandson's middle name? How the hell should I know?'. That was my grumpy man impersonation. 38 00:09:33,211 --> 00:10:00,452 Number three, this is a classic Australian one, guys, ok? So, we use 'bugger' or 'buggered' as a kind of swear word, but you can kind of use it anyway. It's kind of not really that rude compared to some other words, right? So 'buggered' you can say here 'buggered if I know', ok? As in 'how would I know?', right? 'I don't know', screwed if I know , 'buggered if I know'. 'What time's dad coming over? Buggered if I know'. 39 00:10:01,075 --> 00:10:15,285 Number four, and the last one for the video episode, remember, there'll be three more for the podcast episode, number four is 'stuffed if I know'. Again, a kind of polite swear word if there is such a thing. 'Stuffed if I know'. 'What's Australia's biggest mammal? Stuffed if I know, mate'. 40 00:10:16,735 --> 00:10:39,372 Number five. Alright, let's get into the rude ones, guys. Number five: 'fucked if I know'. Obviously, this is rude because you're using the word 'fuck'. Don't use this in polite situations, use this in very informal situations where swearing is ok amongst friends, ok? 'Fucked if I know'. 'Who is Australia's prime minister? Oh mate, fucked if I know'. 41 00:10:39,830 --> 00:10:57,242 Number six: derivation of 'how the hell should I know?' or 'how on earth should I know?' is 'how the fuck should I know?'. 'How the fuck should I know?'. 'How the fuck should I know?' Again, just adds more emphasis, right? 'Have you seen Pete? No. How the fuck should I know where he is?'. 42 00:10:57,650 --> 00:11:27,237 The very last one here, guys, is 'no idea' with the swear word in the middle 'no fucking idea', right? 'No fucking idea'. 'I've got no fucking idea'. And you might hear this sometimes abbreviated to just MFI if you want to say it politely without having to actually say the F word, 'fuck', right.? 'No fucking idea' you could say if you really want to emphasize that, but you could just say 'oh NFI'. 'I have no fucking idea what you're talking about, mate', or 'I've NFI what you're talking about, mate'. 43 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:41,534 And before we finish, guys, there is a classic joke in English that you guys can probably tell. Again, it's rude, well, it uses a rude word. It's informal, ok? So, use this with friends who don't mind if you're swearing, but here's the joke. 44 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:44,339 What do you call a deer with no eyes? No idea deer. 45 00:11:45,801 --> 00:11:48,937 What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs? Still no idea. 46 00:11:52,746 --> 00:11:57,288 Right? No eyes, no legs. He can't move, he's still, still no eye deer. 47 00:11:58,100 --> 00:12:05,472 What do you call a deer with no eyes, no legs, and no genitals? Still no 'fucking' idea. 48 00:12:06,860 --> 00:12:13,181 Did you get it? 'Still no fucking idea'. That was something my dad used to tell me as a kid, ok? I hope you thought it was funny. 49 00:12:14,542 --> 00:12:25,682 Alright, guys, thank you so much for joining me today. Don't forget to go down in the comments and try and use some of these expressions, especially ones you like and you want to use in your day to day English starting now. 50 00:12:25,764 --> 00:12:34,927 Also, hit that subscribe button, guys, and smash the bell notification button if you want to stay up to date with all of my future videos just like this one to teach you advanced English. 51 00:12:35,669 --> 00:12:59,049 And lastly, go and check out my podcast, the Aussie English podcast. You can listen anywhere, anytime to level up your English and learn things like expressions, Australian culture, Australian history, and I even interview people on there sometimes about really interesting topics. It's a great place to level up your English. Thanks again and our chat to you soon. Peace.