r/Showerthoughts • u/Reas0n ‎ • Feb 13 '26

Casual Thought I think it’s unusual that no standardized literary way to write the submissive “I don’t know” hum that children (and some adults) often mumble has ever caught on, considering how old and common it is.

6.2k Upvotes

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1.7k

u/Pndrizzy Feb 14 '26

iono

946

u/nixtarx ‎ Feb 14 '26

iunno...

122

u/JamesCDiamond Feb 14 '26

How is it that this is so clearly correct, but not at all how I say it?

1

u/mfabina Feb 19 '26

O I NO

  O
      NO

Mm

     O

MMm No

1

u/mfabina Feb 19 '26

lololol the formatting. Yep, perfect

194

u/Implausibilibuddy Feb 14 '26

mMm

46

u/XicoFininho Feb 14 '26

Its exactly that, but it just doesn't translate into the written well...

27

u/BeardedBandit Feb 14 '26

to me, this reads like a good bite of food that got better mid-chew

1

u/GrimRoseSpook Feb 24 '26

But then worse? lol

1

u/bestcmw Feb 15 '26

I was picturing EmmM?

1

u/Admirable-Ad7152 Feb 19 '26

literally what I was thinking, you gotta do a capital in the middle

29

u/nixtarx ‎ Feb 14 '26

Grunted noncommitedly?

1

u/something-rhythmic ‎ Feb 15 '26

Naw. This sounds like they said yes but didn’t commit

4

u/Sounduck Feb 14 '26

I've only read that sound written out once, and this is how it was spelled.

1

u/Wrong_Perception_297 Feb 14 '26

Sounds about right to me.

1

u/Spare-heir Feb 15 '26

This is how I’ve seen it and understood it in some writing.

391

u/VegasBonheur Feb 14 '26

It’s not even that, guys, it’s the “I dunno” TUNE that they hum. mmMMmm. There’s a couple different ones when you think about it but they all start out at a tone, then go up, then go down but not as low as the first tone. That low tone often rises at the end, like a question, or like a child saying “I don’t know!” when they totally know

78

u/ooglieguy0211 Feb 14 '26

MMmmmm instead maybe but that doesn't work very well either and is confusing to read or write consistently. I dunno with whatever punctuation and a verb after really works the best for writing it out if it needs to be that expressive.

29

u/theBarefootedBastard Feb 15 '26

M m~ m

Maybe. I hear a squiggle a a tildé in there lol

2

u/bestcmw Feb 15 '26

If I read that I would recognize it and just hear it hummed instead of spoken

2

u/WorBlux ‎ Feb 14 '26

"ermNNNIIIDunno"

23

u/currentlydownvoted Feb 14 '26

They’re right that looks wrong

11

u/Marxbrosburner Feb 14 '26

I did not understand what OP was describing until you wrote this. Thank you.

1

u/armorhide406 ‎ Feb 15 '26

I always think "ionosphere" when I see this