Questions & Answers about Ну, я не знаю.
Does Ну mean "well" as in doing something well?
No, Ну is a conversational filler word, exactly like the English hesitation "Well, ...". If you want to say you do something well (like "I speak Russian well"), you would use the word хорошо.
Why is there no word for "do" in я не знаю?
Russian does not use helper verbs like "do" or "does" to make negative sentences. To say you don't do something, you simply put the negative particle не directly in front of the verb. Literally, this translates as "I not know."
How do we get the verb form знаю?
The dictionary form of the verb "to know" is знать. To make it match the pronoun я (I), you drop the -ть ending and add -ю, giving you знаю.
Do you pause between не and знаю when speaking?
No, in spoken Russian, the negative word не is pronounced together with the verb it belongs to, as if they were a single word. You will hear it flow together smoothly without a break.
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