It's me, Elliot from E.

T.

J.

English.

Today I want to give you some alternative ways of saying, I don't know.

We want alternatives for formal situations in formal situations, situations where we want the listener to know that we kind of know.

But not really.

And of course, being a pronunciation specialist, I am going to help you also with a little bit of pronunciation along the way.

So let's begin with I don't know.

This is usually shortened to, I don't know, particularly in informal situations, that so instead of being I don't know Oh, a lot of rounding of the mouth being an English speaker.

That means I'm a lazy speaker.

So that means I'm going to relax this word whenever I can.

Maybe not so much in a formal situation, but I could just say, Don't know, I don't know instead of I don't know.

But do be careful when you use this.

As I said, it can be a little bit informal.

Of course, Another common one is, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure that some people may even say I'm not too sure they'll add the word to It's a bit like in British culture, where we always say, just instead of saying Could you do this for me?

We tend to say, Could you just do this for me?

Not a clue.

Where did Dave go last night?

Not a clue.

Um or informal, Relaxed way would be dropping that t you're tightening your goddess, which is in your throats to create a glass.

Lt Not a clue.

Not a clue.

No.

A clue or not A clue where we connect our speech.

We use the t at the end of the word, not and join it to the earth.

So not to clue, Not a clue.

It's basically the same as saying I don't have a clue.

I don't have any knowledge on what happened to Dave last night.

Where he went, why he wasn't at the party anymore.

Not a clue.

I don't have a clue.

I don't have a clue.

That's another one you can say.

My friend says to me, Elliot, what time does the assignment need to be handed in by tomorrow?

What's the deadline?

I could say, Don't ask me.

It's more of a fun way of saying I don't know.

And again, it's probably more informal.

Don't ask me.

It's another way of kind of saying Why are you asking me?

I don't know.

How am I supposed to know?

So don't ask me.

Don't ask me again.

You'll see.

I'm removing the tea from the word Don't don't ask me.

Let's practice the word ask So stick ask.

So we're starting with the our tongue down and pulled back into the mouth Open the mouth nice and big.

It's a long vowel.

Ah ah!

And then we're doing a continent cluster skink.

So we're doing an S s and then we're cutting it out with a cake.

It's a release stick.

Ask Ask.

The most important thing is getting that K on the end.

So don't ask me another question.

Will Brexit ever be done?

Who knows?

Who knows?

Saying who knows is a bit like saying nobody knows.

E don't know.

I don't think anybody knows who knows.

It's all about the intonation here.

We're not just going to say who knows, because that just sounds like a statement.

Who knows who knows the way I'm playing with my tone here turns it into a kind of questioning tone.

Who knows so practice my intonation with this one.

Who knows who knows who knows?

God knows God knows that was very common.

But of course I know some people are sensitive about the word God.

So please don't be offended by me teaching this.

It's a part of British culture to say this.

Here's another question.

How much do you think his car costs?

It looks expensive to be honest, mate, your guess is as good as mine.

To be honest, mate, your guess is as good as mine.

It's like saying, I know you don't know.

So your guess is as good as mine?

I don't know either.

Neither of us know your guess is as good as mine.

I want you to take note of this.

Is Aziz good as mine?

I'm not saying is as good as mine.

I'm relaxing these two words.

They're becoming a bit faster because they're what we call function words.

They're not important.

We want to get to the stressed words faster.

So instead of saying your guess is as good as mine will say your guests is, is, is, is, is, is good as mine is, Aziz Good does so good is a stressed words.

So we're slowing down and emphasizing that word and then going straight back into another Azaz instead of as so your guess is as good as mine.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Will we be able to go on holiday next year?

No idea.

Meaning?

I don't have any idea.

Don't know.

No idea.

No idea.

I say my friend is trying to do something, which maybe he doesn't know if he's allowed to do it in his job.

And he says to me, Elliot, will I lose my job if I do this?

Well, don't take my word for it.

But somebody did that last year and he got sacked just to quickly explain the words sacked.

To be sacked means to be fired or to lose your job.

So don't take my word for it.

But somebody got sacked when they did this last year, but I don't know the answer.

But here is some evidence to prove that maybe this is the answer, so don't take my word for it.

I don't actually know, but here is some evidence I'm not 100%.

I'm not 100% or I'm not 100% either is fine.

So as you can see, there are loads of different ways of saying I don't know.

Andi, don't get too stressed about it.

It's fine just to say I don't know.

But what I like to do is give my students more options.

Toe.

Have fun.

English is fun.

You can make it fun, but just picking two or three of thes, which you like.

Obviously, you have to be careful which ones used in a more formal situation or which ones used in a informal situation.

But eventually you'll start to notice from hopefully hearing these mawr in daily life, do some listening practice and see if you start to notice the's phrases that I teach you now.

You heard a bit of it earlier, but the real key is about how you tone thes to make them into more of a question or to make them into more of a I don't know.

I mean, I could say I don't know.

Or I could say I don't know.

Or I could say I don't know, you know.

So there are quite a few different ways of saying I don't know just by changing my tone, and it can actually change the meaning.

And this is a really big thing.

Internation plays a massive part when we're trying to create effect with what we're saying.

But luckily I teach Internation in massive detail.

In my course, there's a whole chapter about it as well as all of the sounds in English, all of the phonetics, every step you need to take in order to reduce the problems in your accent and to start working towards a more British accent.

So if you do want to work with me, I'm very happy to help you.

You can join the courts with the link below.

Go to e t j english dot com Thank you very much for watching Please give me a thumbs up And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you next time.

Cheers, guys.