Hi. Bob the Canadian here.
Today, I thought I would help you learn 10 English phrases that start with the words
"I don't..."
These are very common phrases in English, and the last one actually involves a little
bit of swearing.
Oops.
Hi. Bob the Canadian here. In this English lesson, I thought I would help you learn 10 English phrases that start
with the words "I don't..."
You probably already know the first one because it's the one that you say the most when you're
learning a language like English, and that's, "I don't know."
This one is very, very common in a classroom.
When the teacher asks a student if they know the answer to a question, oftentimes the student
will reply by saying, "I don't know."
They say I don't know, to indicate that they do not know the answer.
So that's our first one.
Probably the simplest of the 10 that we're going to look at.
Let's look at nine more.
The second phrase we're going to look at is "I don't care" and the best way to understand
this phrase is for me to give you an example.
Maybe you have just gotten a haircut and someone says to you, "Your Mom told me that she doesn't
like your haircut."
You could respond by saying "I don't care."
That means that you do not care about the opinion that your Mom has about your haircut.
You are not worried about the fact that your Mom doesn't like your haircut.
You are not concerned about it.
You are not interested in her opinion.
So you would say, "I don't care if someone told you that your Mom doesn't like your haircut."
It's not always the nicest thing to say, but it is something that we do say a lot in English
so "I don't care." is our second one.
Our third phrase is "I don't understand," and you would use this phrase whenever you
are in a situation where you are having trouble comprehending what is happening.
A great example would be if you park your car in a place where you thought you were
allowed to park, and then you got a parking ticket, and you look around and there are
no signs that say No Parking.
You could express how you're feeling by saying "I don't understand.
I thought I could park here.
I don't understand the situation."
So you're in a situation where something has happened and you're having trouble comprehending,
you're having trouble understanding what has happened.
So that's our third phrase.
"I don't understand."
You can also use this phrase when you are learning a language like English.
If someone says something to you and you had difficulty comprehending what they are saying,
you could say "Just a minute, I don't understand," and then you could ask for clarification.
Our fourth phrase is "I don't want to," and the best way again to help you understand
this is for me to give you an example.
Maybe a friend of yours has asked you if you want to go see a movie and you don't want
to, you would say to them, "I don't want to."
This would indicate to your friend that you have no desire to go see the movie that they
have suggested that you go and see.
So your friend would say, "Would you like to go to a movie?"
And you would say, "Hmm, I don't want to."
Our fifth phrase is "I don't believe you."
So imagine a situation where someone has told you something, and you have trouble thinking
that it really happened.
You have trouble believing them.
You would express that by saying "I don't believe you."
You could also say, "I don't believe it."
We use both phrases interchangeably.
But if someone tells you a story, and you doubt that it is true or you doubt that it
really happened, you would say "I don't believe you."
Now be careful here.
When you say, "I don't believe you" to someone, it is similar to saying that you think they
are lying or it's almost the same as calling them a liar.
So it's important that you have a good relationship with someone before you say, "I don't believe
you."
Our sixth phrase is, "I don't get it."
And the best example of this is if someone tells you a joke and you don't understand
why it is funny.
So someone has told a joke, and maybe everyone else is laughing except you, you would say
"I don't get it."
This would indicate to the person who told the joke that maybe they need to explain the
joke to you.
Jokes aren't as funny though when someone has to explain it.
But if someone tells a joke and you don't understand the joke, you could say, "I don't
get it."
Our seventh phrase is, "I don't mind."
And a great example for this one would be maybe my kids are at school, and Jen and I
are at home and Jen says to me, "Could you go and get the kids?
I don't have time to drive to town to get them."
I could say, "I don't mind."
When you say "I don't mind," it means it's no problem.
It would mean in this situation that I had lots of time, maybe I like driving and I like
driving to town.
So I would easily say to Jen, "Oh yeah, I'll get the kids.
I don't mind."
So "I don't mind" is a great way to agree with someone, even though it sounds like a
negative phrase, it actually isn't.
So you would say, "I don't mind," which is I guess similar to saying yes.
Our eighth phrase is "I don't remember."
This is a phrase that as I get older, I say more and more.
Sometimes I lose my keys and Jen will say to me, 'Well, where did you use them last?"
And I would say "I don't remember."
And that would mean that in my memory, in my brain, there is no memory of where I used
my keys last and there is no memory of where I put them.
So I would say, "I don't remember."
I hope that most of you are a lot younger than me and you have a really good memory.
As I get older, my memory is getting worse and I tend to say "I don't remember more often."
Our ninth phrase is "I don't think so."
So this is a phrase where if someone asks you about something in the past that you don't
think happened, you would say "I don't think so."
So maybe someone says to me, "I think it rained yesterday" and I could say, "You know, I was
outside all day yesterday.
I don't think so.
I don't think it rained yesterday."
So it's a very polite way actually to somewhat disagree with someone.
If someone says, "This movie, the Avengers movie is the best movie I've ever seen in
my life," you could disagree by saying "I don't think so.
I actually preferred the last X-Men movie."
So, "I don't think so" is a subtle way to disagree with someone.
The 10th phrase I'm a little bit scared to talk about because it involves swearing, it
involves using bad words and I don't do that on my YouTube channel, but you could say "I
don't give a (bleep)" and you could insert an English swear word.
So, maybe someone says "You should wear a seatbelt because there are lots of police
out right now checking for people wearing seatbelts."
You could say, "Look, I don't give a (bleep)" and then that little pause there would be
a bad word.
I don't say this very often and I don't think you should either, but you should be ready
to listen for those kinds of words when you're watching English TV or English movies.
Well, hey, that was 10 phrases that start with, "I don't..."
I hope this English lesson was helpful for you.
If you learned something, give me a thumbs up.
If you are new here, click the Subscribe button, and I hope that you have a great week and
I will see you in the next video.