This mini episode teaches you the useful phrase “For all I know.”
Episode 214 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful phrase “For all I know.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, this is Roza, from Iran, Kurdistan Province. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 214 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
The expression I’m going to teach you today is “For all I know.” For all I know. That’s for—f-o-r. All—a-l-l. I. Know—k-n-o-w. For all I know.
What does it mean when we introduce a sentence with this phrase, “For all I know”?
First of all, this phrase is not always “For all I know.” It can also be “For all she knows,” “For all he knows,” “For all you know,” and so on. But I will use “For all I know” in this discussion.
We use “For all I know” as a way of saying, “I don’t really know. I don’t have a lot of information.” Or “I am guessing,” or “I am assuming.”
Let me give you an example of a situation where somebody might use the phrase “For all I know.” Let’s say that my friend and I are talking, and we start talking about somebody we used to know. This is somebody we used to go to school with, many years ago. Let’s say this person’s name is John. My friend asks me a question about John. My friend says, “Where is John living these days?” And I answer, “For all I know, he’s still living in New York.”
What does that mean? Why did I introduce my statement with “For all I know”? When I use that kind of introduction, I’m saying, “I don’t really know. I don’t know the answer. All I can do is guess or assume.” So what I’m saying is “Based on the information I have, I guess that he might still be living in New York. But I really don’t know.”
That’s what “For all I know means.” It means “I don’t have a lot of information. I’m really just telling you what I think, or telling you what I guess, or what I assume.”
There’s one last thing that you should know about this phrase. Whenever we use it, we stress the word I. Or maybe he or she or we—or whatever the subject is. It might not always be “For all I know,” but whatever pronoun or name we use instead of I always receives stress. That word is always stressed. So we always say, “For all I know,” or “For all we know,” “For all you know,” “For all Mary knows.” That is the part that always gets stressed: the I, or he, or she, or we. If you say this phrase that way, it will sound very natural.
Well, that is “For all I know,” a very useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
We have reached the end of episode 214 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Roza recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.