STOP ASKING 'WHAT?' | Smart Ways to Say You Don’t Understand

Hey guys, welcome to my channel! This is Linguamarina! What is your natural reaction to this? WHAAAT? This is a way a lot of you ask people to repeat things. There are other ways to ask people to repeat something and we are going to talk about these things in today's video.

Wу are going to start with formal ways. For example, British people often use "pardon?" When they say it, they mean that they didn't get what you were saying, so you are supposed to repeat.

Some other formal short phrases that you can use are:
• Sorry?
• Excuse me?
• I beg your pardon?

There are also some certain phrases that would help you out in the situation when you don't understand something. The questions below are always polite and professional to use in a conversation:
• Excuse me, I didn't catch you. Could you repeat this again, please?
• I'm sorry, I don't understand. Can you repeat, please?
• I'm sorry, I don't understand. Could you repeat, please?
• Excuse me, I hear this word for the first time. Could you explain what it means?
• I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by...

Of course, there are informal ways of asking people to repeat things. However, you need to make sure you maintain the right intonation. Here are some of the short phrases you can use:
• What did you say?
• Huh?
• ‘Scuse me?
• What was that?
• Hmm?

Now, let's cover some slang phrases:
• Come again?
• Pass that by me again?
• I don’t get it

And I want to wrap up this video with idioms that you can use in the situation when you don't understand what the other person is saying to you:
• This is all Greek to me
• I think our wires are crossed
• That was as clear as mud
• Everything you said is just a word salad

Time codes:
0:48 Formal ways
2:41 Informal ways
4:20 Slang
5:00 Idioms

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[linguamarina]

Where are you from? Is anyone from Dresden watching this video? 😀

Time codes:
0:48 Formal ways
2:41 Informal ways
4:20 Slang
5:00 Idioms

[adhyatiwari]

I'm from India and I think that this is the best platform to learn english, l mean your youtube channel. You're best teacher ever🇮🇳🇮🇳

[tanyachandnani]

The best thing about lingua marina is that she makes sure to add every single clip about every minor thing she teaches us, so that our pronunciation skills also get an increase! I loved it. Thankyouu!💜

[sasinidissanayaka]

I'm not a native speaker .I'm from sri lanka.I'm trying to learn english well and you are the best.I likeyour teaching style .thank you again🙏❤️

[delilahttp]

I don’t know what I’m doing here (I’m a native English speaker) but this is such a cool channel!

[ganyakawatra]

I'm not a native English speaker, this channel has improved my English speaking and conversing skills.
Thank you so much😊☺

[rohumidhu]

Actually I'm afraid to speak in English.. This channel gives me the confidence, I get new phrases..

[hannashuraieva]

In Texas local also used to say: ‘say it again’ to me🙂

[narimanrustemov]

Marina perfectly knows English learners weak spots and comes up with an excellent explanation) That's why you love her so much! Greetings from Kazakhstan 🇰🇿

[MdAsraful-xbme]

I’m from Bangladesh and I think that this is the best platform to learn English, I mean your YouTube channel. You are best teacher ever🇧🇩

[ilonaleclerclifeinusa]

Sometimes I think it sounds a bit rude when people ask what? It’s a great video to give people more options )

[misfarahammedfahim]

I am from Bangladesh 🇧🇩
Your learning progress is so good 🙂

[karansingh-rsqg]

In INDIA if we want to people repeat the thing we just us HUH😅😅

[pratyushaboddu]

U improved my accent to a great extent thank you

[jairorubenmendoibarra]

I knew about the German phrase because I follow a girl whose name is "Felicia", her YouTube channel is "Feli From Germany", she lives in Cincinatti, Ohio and she talks about culture differences between Germany and America, she has a podcast channel on YouTube as well along with Josh and it's called "Understanding Train Station" and the name makes reference to what you said about the German idiom you mentioned, I believe you should follow both channels.
PS. Great video, I enjoy following your content because it feeds my brain and makes my English to get better.

[othnxxltv]

I basically french, i learned english at school, never gone to an english country, but i knew a lot of english by myself. I just discovered your channel, and i really like it, keep it up :)

[pingakshbehar]

Well fun fact :
In INDIA you don't have to say 1:50 this complete line, you just have to say
*Hain* or *HUH* and that sit.😜😜😜😜

[bbgizfv]

I’m from Sudan 🇸🇩 and I’m very happy 😃 to watching this videos thanks 🙏 ❤️

[huybui]

My name is Huy. From Vietnam

I have watched some of your videos on how to shorten an English sentence and this video too but I am sure I will only be able to apply 2-3 sentences in this video because I don't want to remember so many sentences.

I find it very useful for English learners like me.
Thank you very much.

[IvanKolupaeff]

Thanks a lot Marina for your light style of teaching! Thanks for a nice way to explain many things shortly and in a very interesting manner. So many scenes from movies! That's a lot of work! Great respect!