How do you say I don’t know in Italian?

How exactly do you say I don’t know in Italian? Is there more than one way to say it?

In this lesson, we will take a look at the different ways you can translate this sentence into Italian. Read on to learn them all!

Let’s get started! Iniziamo!

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How do you say I don’t know in Italian?

Non (lo) so

Non lo so is the closest translation of I don’t know in Italian and literally means “I don’t know it”.

Unlike English, it uses the direct object pronoun “it”. There is also a version without the pronoun, non so, but it’s perceived as a bit informal and uncaring, so it’s not as commonly used.

This common sentence in Italian is made up of three elements.

Non
Not

Lo
Direct object pronoun “it”

So
“I know”

Are you wondering why the direct object pronoun “it” precedes the verb? Learn how the Italian direct object pronouns work here.

So is the first-person singular conjugation of sapere, to know, in the present tense. Sapere is one of the four Italian modal verbs and it’s also an irregular verb.

io	so
tu	sai
lui, lei	sa
noi	sappiamo
voi	sapete
loro	sanno

For example, you could say…

So cucinare, ma non so cantare.
I can cook, but I can’t sing.

Sai leggere l’alfabeto cirillico?
Can you read the Cyrillic alphabet?

Sapete suonare il pianoforte?
Can you play the piano?

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Non ne ho idea

This is another common translation for I don’t know in Italian, and it’s used when you want to emphasize that you don’t know something. It literally translates to “I don’t have any idea about it”.

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Non ne ho la più pallida idea

If you want to emphasize even further that you don’t know something in Italian, you can use non ne ho la più pallida idea, which translates to I don’t have the slightest idea.

Pallida means pale, while the particle ne once again means about it.

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Boh!

Don’t use boh in formal situations, because it’s a very informal (and very popular) way of saying I don’t know in Italian! It’s an exclamation and it has no literal translation into English.

It’s usually accompanied by a hand movement: palms up, as in the following picture!

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Che ne so!

Che ne so is another colloquial way of saying I don’t know in Italian. Again, don’t use it in formal settings. It can be perceived as rude even among friends because it conveys impatience.

In its variant che cavolo ne so!, it can be translated very closely to the English expression the hell if I know!.

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A saperlo! / Magari lo sapessi!

A saperlo and magari lo sapessi are two less common ways of saying I don’t know in Italian, but they are different from the expressions we’ve seen so far. They convey a need to know what you don’t know, similar to I wish I knew.

And that’s the end of our lesson on how to say I don’t know in Italian in all its forms!

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