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Is this sentence correct? "I'm not interested to discuss".

Or should it be? "I'm not interested in discussing".

Or are both of them correct?

In general, if somebody asks you a question, and you want to respectfully decline to respond, what would you say?

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To start, discuss is a transitive verb, so it has to be used with an object. This makes both of your proposed sentences sound incorrect, to my ear. (They both make me want to ask, "not interested in discussing what?"). This is easy to fix: you can just say

I'm not interested in discussing this.

or

I'm not interested in discussing this topic.

As for 'interested in' vs 'interested to', I would advise you to say 'interested in' almost all the time. It is true that there are constructions in which 'interested to' is correct, but these are quite formal, specific, and uncommon. In this particular case, 'interested in' is correct, and 'interested to' is incorrect.

I should also note that, in casual conversation, the corrected versions above might seem a bit blunt. That's not necessarily a bad thing -- sometimes being direct is good. But, if you want something softer, here are some other options:

Let's talk about something else
I don't want to talk about [it/this]
It's a personal matter

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  • Thank you so much! I want to be direct, but respectful. Is saying "I'm sorry, I'm not interested in discussing that" a good answer? Or is "I'm sorry, I don't want to talk about it" better?
    – Harry
    Commented Nov 27 at 22:33
  • @Harry For me, the second is less confrontational -- generally, constructions using "interested" sound a bit stronger. Even softer is "I'd prefer not to talk about [this/that/it], sorry." But I think how you say it is the most important part: if you are calm, genuine, and make good eye contact, you can say almost anything without risking causing offense.
    – George K.
    Commented Nov 27 at 22:45

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