Day 27: You never know

Day 27 of 30 Days of Intonation: You never know

For Day 27 of 30 Days of Intonation, we're looking at a fun conversational expression:

You never know

This is another perfect example of how important intonation is; you need to choose appropriate tone order to clearly convey its meaning!

This expression is often used to suggest that anything is possible.

To express this idiomatic meaning, keep your intonation light and happy with enthusiastic, rising tone.

When you use neutral statement intonation, the expression reflects its literal meaning. This use serves as a reminder that it's impossible to know the future, so you should keep an open mind.

After suffering a disappointment, you might choose to say "You never know" with falling intonation. This suggests that things didn't work out as you'd hoped.

Flat intonation shows stronger disappointment or even annoyance at an outcome.

Please remember: if you choose to use idioms, be sure to study their intonation! If you use the expression with the wrong intonation, you won't sound natural. And you know my goal is to get you sounding more natural!

Related Examples:

  • Wait and see
  • See what happens
  • Anything’s possible