How to say ‘I don’t understand’ in French

When you start learning French, you won’t understand every word of conversation. That’s perfectly normal, but it’s also important to clearly express that you don’t fully understand your interlocutor. There’s more than one way to say this in French, and some ways are more formal than others. In this guide, we’ll teach you several ways to say “I don’t understand” in French — along with other helpful phrases for getting around.

• How to say “I don’t understand” in French
• How to say “I don’t know” in French
• How to say that you’re totally lost in French
• How to ask someone to repeat themself in French
• How to say that you didn’t hear something well in French

---

How to say ‘I don’t understand’ in French

To explain that you don’t understand something in French, you can use a formal or informal expression.
In formal French, your options include:

French	English
Je ne comprends pas.	I don’t understand.
Je n’ai pas compris.	I didn’t understand.
Qu’avez-vous dit ?	What did you say?
Que dites-vous ?	What are you saying?
Je ne comprends pas ce que vous dites.	I don’t understand what you are saying.

For more politeness, you can add the phrase “Excuse-moi…” or “Excusez-moi…” (“Excuse me…”) in front of the sentence.

To express a lack of understanding more informally, you could say:

French	English
Je comprends pas.	I don’t understand.
J’ai pas compris.	I didn’t understand.
Je ne pige pas.	I don’t get it.
J’ai rien capté/compris.	I didn’t get it.
Hein ?	What?

In general, you do not need to use the typical negation (“ne”) before the verb comprendre.

How to say ‘I don’t know’ in French

In formal French:

French	English
Je ne sais pas.	I don’t know.
Je ne sais pas vraiment.	I don’t really know.
Je ne vois pas.	I don’t see it.
Je l’ignore.	I ignore it.

In informal French:

French	English
Je sais pas./Chai pas./J’sais pas.	I dunno.
Je vois pas.	I don’t see it.
Aucune idée.	No idea.

How to say that you’re totally lost in French

How do you say that you’re lost in French? Here are several formal and informal ways to express this. Learn them all, as you never know when or where you’ll end up turned around on your next trip to France.

In formal French:

French	English
Je ne comprends rien.	I don’t understand a word.
Désolé, je suis perdu.e.	Sorry, I’m lost.
Je suis complètement perdu.e, veuillez m’excuser.	I’m completely lost, sorry.
Excusez-moi, je n’ai rien compris.	Excuse me, I didn’t understand anything.
Pardon ?	Sorry?
Comment ?	Sorry?

In informal French:

French	English
Quoi ?	What?
J’ai rien compris.	I did not understand anything.

How to ask someone to repeat themself in French

In formal French:

French	English
Pouvez-vous répéter ?	Can you repeat?
Pourriez-vous répéter s’il vous plaît ?	Could you repeat, please?
Vous pouvez répéter la phrase ?	Can you repeat the sentence?

How to say that you didn’t hear something well in French

In formal French:

• Excusez-moi, je n’ai pas entendu ce que vous avez dit. (Excuse me, I didn’t hear what you just said.)

In informal French:

• Excuse-moi, j’ai pas entendu ce que t’as dit. (Excuse me, I didn’t hear what you said.)

---

Different ways to say ‘I don’t understand’ in French

Now that we’ve learned how to say “I don’t understand” in French, you should have everything you need to avoid misunderstandings when speaking to locals. All you need now is to brush up your French skills and listen attentively — ideally, so that you’ll need to ask this question less and less.

---