I don’t even know….

[Silverobama]

Hi.

A friend of mine sent me a compilation of some IELTS questions about spoken English. There are more than 50 topics (a few hundred questions) there. I took a look at most of them and I was surprised to see some of them questions which are very very difficult. I bet many people have never thought about them even in Chinese. I then said this to myself:

I don’t even have the faintest idea how to answer them in Chinese, let alone in English.

I think my sentence is perfect to mean those questions are difficult. And it’s perfectly natural and grammatical. Am I right?

 

[emsr2d2]

A friend of mine sent me a compilation of some IELTS questions about spoken English. There are more than 50 topics (a few hundred questions). there. I took a look at most of them and I was surprised to see that some of them the questions which are very, very difficult. I bet many people have never thought about them, even in Chinese. I then said this to myself thought:

I don’t even have the faintest idea how to answer them in Chinese, let alone in English.

I think my sentence is perfect to mean those questions are difficult, and it’s perfectly natural and grammatical. Am I right?

Your sentence is OK. I found the combination of "even" and "have the faintest idea" a little unusual though. I'd probably just go with "I don't even know ...".

A few points, based on the changes I've made to your last two or three threads:
1) You overuse "then".
2) You overuse "there".
3) You need to work on your use of "that" and "which".

 

[jutfrank]

The focus of the modifier even should be on in Chinese, so I'd reposition it (see below) and make the whole sentence conditional (wouldn't instead of don't):

I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to answer them even in Chinese, let alone in English.

It's like saying 'Even in Chinese, I wouldn't be able to answer these questions'.

 

[Tarheel]

@Silverobama
I'm curious. Could you post one of the questions?

 

[Silverobama]

Sure, more than one question. And you can see what they said in Chinese. The first picture has nothing to do with my question while the second has to do with my question in another thread here.

 

[Tarheel]

This device has a small screen. I need stuff to be mobile-friendly.

 

[Silverobama]

This device has a small screen. I need stuff to be mobile-friendly.

You can use it even on computer.

 

[emsr2d2]

You can use it even on computer.

Tarheel doesn't have a computer, as far as I know, but uses this forum exclusively on a mobile.

@Tarheel - Unless you've suddenly learned how to read Chinese, you're not missing anything. The screenshot that was posted was all in Chinese!

@Silverobama - I have a feeling that Tarheel was asking for an example of a question you can't answer in Chinese or English!