In this mini episode, you will learn the useful phrase “to have no idea.”
Episode 339 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful phrase “to have no idea.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi there! This is Ryoko Takao, from Tokyo, Japan. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 339 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 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
In this episode, I am going to teach you a very common and useful phrase. And that phrase is “to have no idea.” To have no idea.
That’s have—h-a-v-e, no—n-o, idea—i-d-e-a. To have no idea.
Usually, when we use this phrase, we mean “to not know something,” or “to not understand something.” Actually, usually it means to really not know or understand something.
If you say, “I have no idea,” that sounds a little bit stronger, a little bit more forceful, than just saying, “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand.”
Let me give you an example of a situation where you might use the phrase “to have no idea.”
Let’s say there are two students in a math class, and they are talking about their math homework. And one student asks the other one, “What was the answer for number three?” And the second student answers, “I have no idea.” I have no idea. “I have no idea what the answer to number three was.”
This is a way of saying, “I really don’t know what the answer is. I really didn’t understand it at all.” It’s a stronger way of saying, “I don’t know.”
We do use this phrase, “to have no idea,” in one other, related way. We can use “You have no idea” as a way of giving a very forceful yes to certain kinds of questions and statements.
Let me give you an example of this use of “to have no idea.”
Imagine that one of our math students from before has gone home after taking a math test. And when he goes inside his house, his older brother is there and says, “I think your math test was very hard.” And our math student says this: “You have no idea.” You have no idea. In this case, “You have no idea” means “You could not understand how hard that test was. You could never understand it.”
And so it is a way of responding to that with a very forceful yes. The older brother says, “I think your math test was very hard.” And the younger brother says, “You have no idea” to mean “Yes. It really was hard. It was so hard that you could never understand how hard it was.”
That is “to have no idea,” a very common and useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 339 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Ryoko recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!