When you’re having a conversation, it’s common to not understand everything you hear, no matter how focused you are. You need to express this to the other person in a way that is appropriate to the situation. There are many ways to do this, and here we’ll look at some of the ways you can do just that.
Simple ways
You can just express your lack of understanding, in a few words.
Here are some examples:
- Pardon?
- Pardon me?
- (I) Beg your pardon!
- Excuse me?
- What did you say?
- What was that?
- Sorry?
- Huh? (informal)
- What? (informal and sometimes rude)
Slang
- Come again?
- Say what?
- Pass that by me again?
Slightly longer ways
Quite often, you might want to say it with a few more words.
Examples:
- I’m afraid I don’t get your idea.
- I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you just said.
- Sorry. I can’t follow what you’re saying to me.
- Unfortunately, I can’t clearly make sense of what you’re telling me.
- I’m a bit confused. Do you mind explaining it again?
- I’m afraid I’m unclear about what you mean.
- Would you mind clarifying what you said? I’m afraid I don’t follow.
- I simply don’t catch what you’re saying. Sorry.
Using idioms
There are many idioms that express the idea that you don’t understand. Using idioms can also add colour and interest to your communication. Just make sure that you know how to use them!
Examples:
- I’m afraid that it’s as clear as mud to me.
- It’s all Greek to me, I’m afraid.
- I’m sorry. I can’t make head or tail of what you’re saying.
We hope you have a better idea about what to say, when you don’t understand what you hear. Of course, there are many more ways to express the same thing. You’re welcome to add the other ways of expressing this, through the comments section. Good luck!
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for providing us so many ways to solve the problem that we can’t understand when we are talking with people! Indeed,sometimes we can’ t hear clearly or understand people completely in a conversation,but it doesn’t matter.we can ask people to say it once again, or we’ll make both embarrassed.
Tank you for providing us so many ways to solve the problem that we can’t understand when we are talking with people! Indeed,sometimes we can’ t hear clearly or understand people completly in a consersation,but it dosen’t matter.we can ask people to say it once again, or we’ll make both embarressed.
Hi I realy intrested in your way of explainig. so if pssible would you send me some teaching materils through the following address
becuase I am English teacher.
(Ethiopian Address kept private)
Thank you in advance and see you soon.
Dear Moges,
Thank you for your email… all the way from Ethiopia! So exciting to hear from you!
We are in the process of writing a book regarding better spoken English, and we hope it will be published soon. We’ll let you know as soon as it becomes available.
Until that time we hope we can continue to be of service to you via our website. Let us know if you’d like us to ‘post’ something regarding a particular subject.
We look forward to hearing from you again soon.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for your comments. We’re so happy that we’ve been able to help you in some way.
We look forward to hearing from you again soon!
I am glad to know you are going to give birth to a book!So exciting!Hope everything runs well!And we are expecting for it’s publishment!
Thanks Nancy! We’ll keep you ‘up to date’ on the progress.
What an excellent breakdown of what to say in those tricky situations. I have been looking for this exact vocabulary for a while now to teach some of my own students. Many thanks.
Dan, we’re happy to know that you found that article useful. We plan to put up a few more articles like this one in the coming days. Hope you’ll find them to be equally useful.
hi
i am very eager to get better spoken english material to my mail address ,kindly arrange to send as early
thanks
saran
Hi Saran,
We are currently in the process of publishing some learning materials. When we get some together, we’ll send them to you.
1.Sorry,I m not getting u.
Minakshi, that’s a good addition! Thank you for your contribution.