Expression: You don´t know!!!

Hi,

Several of my students start writing a postcard saying: "You don´t know!" or "You don´t know what happened to me"!

This doesn´t sound correct to me. I would say "You can´t imagine..." But I would like to check if their expressions are wrong since grammatically they do not seem to be wrong.

These two expressions seem a little awkward and not very natural, but I wou

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English says that the following structure is used to emphasize how good/bad/surprising/etc. something is:

You can/can't imagine how/what/why/etc.
- You can't imagine what a terrible week we had.
- You can imagine how angry I was!

It also says it's used in British English (and not common in the US, apprarently). Sinc

Kooyeen- You can't imagine what a terrible week we had.
- You can imagine how angry I was!

Hi Kooyeen

Generally speaking, those sentences are also fine in American English. However, using them as a way to start off a postcard and introduce a surprising bit of news does not strike me as the most typical usage. Actually, th

Clive! Thank you VERY much. You always help me a lot with your comments and suggestions!

Yankee(especially not the second one).

Hi,
thanks. Yeah, the second one clearly needs a context first (otherwise, how CAN you imagine anything? LOL)
But the first one should be ok as a way to introduce something, why not? We use it this way in Italian, is it different in English? Example:

Message for Amy:
Hi Amy,
you can't i

Hi Kooyeen

KooyeenMessage for Amy:
Hi Amy,
You can't imagine how upset I am right now. My cat has disappeared... I haven't seen her in two days! I am very worried... blah blah blah.

Right, I was responding to usage as specifically stated in the original question, and the sentence in the quote above does not sound like the beg

Ok, so it's just a matter of context... I see, thanks!