French phrase of the day Day 1
Day 1: I don’t know
I am a French native speaker and I have been teaching French online for years now. I learned while teaching French that literal translation is a powerful and essential tool for language learning.
- It’s a clear and simple way to teach grammar without dealing with unnecessary and complicated grammar rules. Learning a phrase with its English equivalent is simply requiring memory, while learning the phrase, its meaning and its literal translation is teaching vocabulary and grammar. The brain is able to understand how to organize the words in a sentence in the target language during the learning process.
- With literal translation we are actually creating anchors on the existent language by associating words together.
So let’s start with an essential phrase in your learning process, this is I don’t know. Don’t be afraid to use it as often as you need, you are learning! Be comfortable with the whole process of making mistakes, asking questions and be proud of your first broken sentences!
I don’t know
The classic translation for I don’t know is Je ne sais pas. Let’s have a look at the grammar structure of Je ne sais pas.
Je ne sais pas
I not Know not
The negation ‘ne…pas’ is framing the verb Savoir at the present tense for Je (I).
You might hear in vernacular French the contracted form : Ch’ais pas.
Which is not really correct and can, depending on the context, be considered as rude.
Other ways to say Je ne sais pas that are correct but less formal are:
Je n’en ai aucune idée.
I not of it have none idea.
(en refers to something mentioned previously in the conversation)
Je n’en sais rien.
I not of it know nothing.
