Breakdown of No sé qué hacer. Ni idea.
no
no, not
qué
what
hacer
to do / to make
saber
to know (facts) / to hear from (someone)
ni idea
no idea
Questions & Answers about No sé qué hacer. Ni idea.
Why do we use the infinitive hacer right after qué?
This is an indirect question! When you are talking about what to do, where to go, or how to do something, and the person doing the action is the same, you can use a question word plus the infinitive. It works exactly like English: qué hacer means "what to do".
Can I say No sé qué hago instead of using the infinitive?
You could, but it changes the meaning. No sé qué hacer means "I don't know what to do" (you are looking for a solution or next step). No sé qué hago means "I don't know what I am doing" (you are confused by your own current actions). Using the infinitive is the right choice when figuring out a plan.
Why does qué have an accent mark here if the sentence isn't a direct question?
Question words in Spanish always keep their accent marks when they are used in indirect questions. Even though No sé qué hacer is a statement, qué is still acting as a question word ("what"), so it needs the accent to distinguish it from the connecting word que (meaning "that").
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