How do you say "I dont know" in Japanese? (If you could write it in romaji that would be extremely helpful!!) Basically, my friend was adamant that "nan desuka" meant "I don't know" But I said to him

Emily-Mae

How do you say "I dont know" in Japanese? (If you could write it in romaji that would be extremely helpful!!) Basically, my friend was adamant that "nan desuka" meant "I don't know" But I said to him that it means "what?" Because that's what I've learned ("nan desuka" or "Nani") So my question is, how DO you say "I don't know" ??

2015年3月29日 22:15

回答 · 12

shiranai (shirimasen) and wakaranai (wakarimasen) both can mean "I don't know" but there's differences shiranai is closer to 'I'm not familiar with something' or 'I'm not aware of something' wakaranai is closer to 'i don't understand / I don't know right now' so if someone asks you if you're going to go to a party, you might use wakaranai because you don't know at the moment but you know about the party. and if someone were to ask you if you knew your friend had a baby, you might use shiranai in that case in any case, its not nan desuka

2015年3月30日

Shirimasen = negative form of "shiru", to know.

2015年3月29日

shiranai=I don't know. wakaranai=I don't understand.

2015年3月30日

知らないです(shiranai desu) is a simple way of saying you dont know

2015年3月30日

Shirimasen or wakarimasen. I think in certain contexts nan desu ka could be loosely translated into I don't know. Just like in English "what's that?" Means I don't know it. But I think you're right and he's wrong.

2015年3月30日

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