Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on
what to say instead of "I don't understand" when you are having a
conversation with someone and you didn't hear what they said, or you really
didn't understand what they said, either because the concepts were too complex,
or the vocabulary was, you know, more than you know. So, I want to state right
at the beginning, this is meant to be an encouraging video. Of course you will
say "I don't understand". I say "I don't understand" all the time. But what I'm
doing in this video is providing you with more tools, more phrases that you
can use for a variety of situations. Okay. So hopefully you find this video
useful. Let's not waste any more time and begin.
Now, if you really just didn't hear what the person said, Maybe because they
spoke in a low volume, you're in a loud place, or you didn't really hear what
they said, because the vocabulary they used, you know, they used a word in the
middle that you didn't understand. And sometimes all you hear is that one word,
and you forget, and don't pay attention to the rest of the sentence. So very
simple, polite, instead of saying "I don't understand", you can say "sorry".
Now, "sorry" can work by itself. You could just say "sorry". Okay, or you can
start with "Sorry, I missed that." Like, I missed it. I just... I didn't hear it.
Or I didn't get what you said. And I'll get to that one later. In addition to "I
missed that", you can say "I didn't catch that". "I didn't catch that."
Right. So I missed it. I didn't catch it. "I didn't get that." "Sorry, I
Okay, next, very honest: "Sorry, I didn't hear you." Okay, so they were
speaking too low. Maybe they were speaking really quickly. Maybe you're in
a loud room? "I didn't hear you." "Sorry, I didn't hear you." Next:
"Sorry, I didn't follow that." So again, to follow. So someone is speaking, and
they start on a track of conversation. And ideally, you should be walking
beside them in the conversation. But sometimes you don't understand because
their reasoning is very weird, or it doesn't make sense. Or maybe you didn't
hear that. And you say, "Sorry, I didn't follow that." Next. "Sorry. I don't
follow." "I don't follow that." That just means you're admitting that I don't
know what you're saying. Basically, usually "I don't follow" refers to the
logic that the person is using in their speech in their conversation. So if
they're talking about a complex topic, maybe they're talking about genetics,
and they're trying to explain something to you, you have no background in
genetics, and you look at them like "sorry, I don't follow". "I don't
follow." "Sorry, I'm not following." So all three of these. "I didn't follow
that." "I don't follow." "Sorry, I'm not following."
Okay. And you can also say, "Sorry, what was that?" "Okay, so what was that?" It
really goes back to you didn't hear them properly? Or they said a word that you
missed. "Okay. What was that?" Or: "Sorry? What did you just say?" Okay, so
again, maybe you weren't paying attention, your mind was in a different
place. And they say something to get your attention and you say, "Sorry, what
did you just say?" Okay. All right. Next, when you're listening, and you
know, sometimes you are not paying attention, you can admit fault, right?
You can admit that. "Sorry, I wasn't listening." Now, if you say this to your
wife or your husband, it's probably a bad idea. But they say honesty is the
best policy. So sometimes you might just want to admit and say "sorry, I wasn't
listening. My mind was in a different place." Or "I had my headphones on and
my podcast was more interesting than your conversation". Don't say that part.
But, you know, I wasn't listening. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention." So
this could be in a classroom setting and you know, very few students will admit
that they weren't paying attention to their teacher. But this is something you
can say, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention". So maybe you are in a group
setting with like six friends, five friends around a table. And your friends
are talking about something. And they say, "Karen, what do you think?" And
Karen's looking at her phone. "Oh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What?
What?" Okay. Or "sorry, my mind was elsewhere", or "my mind was somewhere
else". So you can say "elsewhere". This just means somewhere else. Not here. My
mind was in a different place.
Okay. So you can admit that you weren't paying attention, that you weren't
listening, or that your mind was, you know, you were thinking about lunch
later or something. Next, if you didn't hear something, or you didn't understand
something, but you're interested, or even if you're not interested, you still
want to know what the person said. You can ask for repetition. Ask people to
repeat. Okay. So, here we go. "Could you repeat that, please?" Okay. "Could you
say that again?" "Want to run that by me one more time?" And I realized I didn't
spell "repetition" correctly. Okay. So you're, you're seeing like a live
correction on air over here. Re... pe...? How do you spell it? Re... pe...
ti... tion? Repetition. Yes, just like that. Alright, so we pause the video,
We're back. "So could you repeat that?" Please? "Could you say that again?"
"Want to run that by me one more time?" So "run that by me one more time". This
is an idiomatic question and idiomatic way to ask someone to repeat something
so "wanna", it's like, "Do you want to?" Or "can you?" So depends on your
familiarity with the person, how comfortable they are with you, and you
are with them? If... before you say something like this, but "wanna run that
by me one more time", like, here are your words, they're running [vroom], can
you run them by me one more time, so I can catch them?
Okay. Next, some casual ways. If you're familiar with the people that you're
hanging out with, if you're friendly with them, if you have a good
relationship with them, and you feel comfortable to be casual, to be
yourself, to not be formal, you can use some of these. So "blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah". "Hold on. What?" Okay, so "hold on" means like,
stop, or wait. And you can just say "what?" So repeat after me. "Hold on.
What?" Okay, next. "Wait, what?" So again, "Hold on. What?" or "Wait, what?"
Say it fast. "Wait, what?" Good. "Whoa, slow down." If the person is speaking
very quickly, you might want to ask them to slow down. You can give one "Whoa".
Or you can give many whoas, right? So you can say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
Okay. If you are very comfortable with the person, "what the heck are you
talking about?" Okay, so you just don't understand what they're saying because
of their argument is strange, or they started talking about something with no
context and you are lost. So another one, you can say, "Well, I'm lost."
"What's happening?" "What the heck are you talking about?" So "heck" is a more
neutral way to say "hell", right? "Hell" is a little stronger. "What the hell?"
"What the heck are you talking about?" You can also just say, "Stop right
there." Okay, so sometimes you don't care what they're talking about. Because
you're like, I don't understand what... why this is important. I don't
understand the argument. I don't understand why you're talking about
this. So "stop right there". And similar to "what the heck are you talking
about?" "I have no clue what you're saying." "I have no idea what you're
saying." Okay, so you are just admitting, in a casual situation like I
I don't know what you're talking about, so "I have no clue what you're saying".
"I don't understand it."
Okay. And finally, you can clarify. Right? So instead of saying you don't
understand what a person is saying, maybe they use a word, or they use an
argument. And you say, "Well, wait a minute. What did you mean by that?"
"What did you mean by that word?" or "What did you mean by that argument?"
And finally, to clarify, this is also a form of asking for repetition. But
"could you repeat the last part again?" "Okay, I just want to make sure I got
what you said." I just want to clarify that I understand your argument. So you
heard what they said, right? But you just want to make sure that you
understand it 100%. "Could you repeat the last part again?" You can also say,
"could you repeat the last thing you said?" Those are all possible.
So one more time, you can say "sorry". So just repeat one more time, everything
after me. I missed that. I didn't catch that. I didn't get that. I didn't hear
you. I didn't follow that. I don't follow. I'm not following. What was
that? What did you just say? I wasn't listening. I wasn't paying attention. My
mind was somewhere else. Could you repeat that? Please? Could you say that
again? Wanna run that by me one more time? And now the fun stuff. Hold on.
What? Wait, what? Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. With that, heck are you talking
about? Stop right there. I have no clue what you're saying. What did you mean by
that? Could you repeat the last part again?
Hopefully now you have a lot more tools in your English vocabulary toolbox that
you can now use in your future English conversations. So "I don't understand"
is one of the first phrases anyone learns in a new language, but: time to
level up. So hopefully you did that today. And if you want to make sure that
you consolidate everything that we studied here today, check out the quiz
on engvid.com to check your learning. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my
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next time, thanks for clicking, and I hope things are a lot clearer for you
now.