English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
To express the idea that you know nothing about something, you can say 'I don't understand at all'.
Is the following sentence natural?
I totally/completely/absolutely don't understand.
In hinative, people said this is unnatural or strange.
"I totally can't understand" is strange. You should use "totally" with positive sentences, not negative ones.
However, according to ludwig.guru, The New York Times, Huffington Post and Vice used this expression:
1.
2.
3.
4.
I'm so confused.
In American spoken English, in the last twenty years or so, the word totally is used in a way that was not used before:
It is basically slang or looser speech.
Example: "I totally don't understand". Meaning: I really don't understand.
In formal conversation between high-level speakers you probably would not hear the sentence above.
All the examples given by the OP reflect this usage. The Huffington Post one is probably spoken English, too.
Generally, in the past, totally, completely and absolutely were used in declarative sentences or negatives ones like this:
I completely or absolutely understand.
OR
I understand completely or absolutely [less common but used]
I don't completely understand. [absolutely would not be used here].
In the past, totally was only used in declarative sentences: "I totally understand".
This usage of totally is similar to the usage of so.
"He so isn't into it." for: "He isn't into it at all".
[idiom: to be into something; to like it]
"I totally do not understand" is common English and completely natural and acceptable.
As @jeffmorrow notes, "I do not totally understand" and "I totally do not understand" mean very different things. The first means I understand somewhat, but not totally. The second means that I don't understand at all.
But I must disagree with him when he says that that makes the construction confusing. There are lots of sentences in English where a change in word order completely changes the meaning of the sentence. "Al punched Bob in the face" means something very different from "Bob punched Al in the face". "My company makes me work hard" means pretty much the opposite of "My company hardly makes me work". Etc. One could play this game all day.
As should be obvious from your second citation, what you are asking about is indeed natural in current American English. Words like “totally” or “absolutely” are used as intensifiers in negative statements.
What may be less obvious is that the quotations do not seem to be from serious writing.
I do not totally understand
implies that you partially understand.
So to say
I totally do not understand
as meaning that you do not understand in any respect leads to confusing communication.
It is currently a common usage, but not one that will impress careful users of English.
To place 'at all' after a negative statement is the normal, standard, formal English way of expressing a complete lack.
I don't understand/like/enjoy/expect (etc) something at all.
I don't understand at all (of something just said or being discussed).
You can prefix a positive or negative statement with a modifier such as 'completely' or 'totally'.
I completely/totally understand geometry.
To use 'totally' to prefix a negative statement is a fairly recent informal usage, and is very common in UK and American casual and informal English, especially among younger people. I expect the contributors to HiNative haven't heard about that.
I totally don't understand what you mean.
I totally don't like salty popcorn
I think the problem is actually more subtle.
In the examples given, you see that the intensifier is followed by "do not". This can be contracted to "don't", of course. But the intentional use of "do not" instead of "don't" is already an intensifier. "I don't agree" is less strong a statement than "I do not agree".
Now, if we would reword your example, and say "I totally do not understand", then the sentence does become more natural.
To my ear, “I absolutely do not understand,” is correct. “I totally do not understand,” is more informal. “I completely do not understand,” does not sound right to me, but apparently some people do say that.
