Ég veit

“Ég veit” means “I know”, but it refers only to knowing facts. It is important to remember not to use this word when saying that you know a person or that you know a language.

The way to say “I don’t know” is:

Ég veit það ekki. = I don’t know.

The literal meaning is “I don’t know that”. Be careful not to forget the word “það” in “Ég veit það ekki”.

A note regarding the pronunciation of “Ég veit það ekki”:

The letter é is pronounced “je”.
The g in “ég” is not pronounced. “Ég” is just pronounced “é”.
The letter cluster ei is always pronounced “eí”. It’s good to overexaggerate your í sound in “veit”.
The “ei” in “veit” is a very long sound. It’s better to overexaggerate the length of long sounds.
The ð in “það” disappears.
Before a double k, you have to breathe out a little bit. “Ekki” is pronounced [e(h)gi].