Ne me contredis pas ! Je sais ce qui est le mieux pour toi.

In English, you would normally say “I know what’s best for you” not “better for you”

French sentence: Je sais pas.

English Translation

I haven’t got a clue.

I’ve always been wondering, but haven’t dared to ask: whenever I hear French people saying “I don’t know” in films, they seem to be saying “J’ai pas”, not “Je sais pas”. The same goes for “I’m not”; I hear “J’uis pas” instead of “Je suis pas”.

Is that just my imagination?

Not just your imagination :slight_smile:

1.Je ne sais pas
2.Je sais pas
3.J’sais pas
4.Chais pas → \ʃe pɑ\

1.Je ne suis pas
2.Je suis pas
3.J’suis pas
4.Chuis pas → \ʃɥi pɑ\

I think you’re hearing #4 in these lists.

ʃ = “ch” sound, in “chercher” (or “sure” in english), that’s the main change here.

It is very common in spoken French.

On a side note, the sentence you are commenting on does not seem to match the thread here.
I think we may have another case of: Sentence comments end up in wrong thread

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Brilliant! Come to think of it, I take it’s of no importance whether the sentence is negated or not; the important thing is that /ʒəs/ becomes /ʃ/ in “je sais” and “je suis”.

I can’t recall ever seeing that in a textbook, so many thanks, @yottapolyglot !

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You’re welcome ! :slight_smile:

The switch from /ʒəs/ to /ʃ/ is definitely the main thing.

It can be used in both declarative and negative sentences, but I think you are more likely to hear this in negative sentences, especially for “je sais” vs. “je sais pas”.

Je suis pas → Chuis pas: very common in spoken French
Je sais pas → Chais pas: also very common

Je suis → Chuis: I would say this is significantly less common, but I still hear it every now and then.
Je sais → Chais: Even less common (rare). I can’t think of too many examples.
Maybe if someone tells you something you already know, you could reply: Oui je sais → \wi ʃe\

That’s in my experience anyway…

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