Close but not quite. That's a conflation of English and French. Sais comes from savoir or "to know". Hence "je ne sais quoi" (a shortening of "je ne sais pas quoi") means literally "I don't know what" or figuratively "I can't say...".

>-----Original Message-----
>From: S. Isaac Dealey
>
>
>hence the literal translation: "I not say what". or "I say not what"
>
>I've always interpreted it more as "I can't say" like... "I can't say
>why I like Monet, I just do." ... "His work has a certain ... I can't
>say."
>
>> je ne sais quoi - roughly translated to mean "that special
>> something".
>>  It means you like some overall aspect that you can't
>>  quite
>> articulate.

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