早知道… / 我还以为… / …是…，可是… / 你再…【zǎo zhīdào / wǒ hái yǐwéi / shì, kěshì / nǐ zài】

Some spoken sentences are left unfinished on purpose. The first half is a set phrase, and saying the second half would be blunt or obvious.

早知道…: regret

早知道 means "if I had known earlier". Stopping after it, or after the situation, says "I'd have done it differently".

When the second half is said, it takes 就 and usually 了.

• × 早知道这么远，我不来 → 早知道这么远，我就不来了

我还以为…: I had it wrong

我还以为 "and I thought…" says the guess turned out to be wrong. What actually happened is in front of both speakers, so it goes unsaid; when the wrong guess is spelled out, it usually ends in 呢.

…是…，可是…: a polite no

A word repeated around 是, then 可是 or 就是 and silence, is a refusal or a reservation that the speaker would rather not say outright. Take it as a no.

A hesitant answer works the same way: zhè ge这个má嘛…… "well…" in answer to a request usually means the answer is no.

你再…: a warning

你再 + the thing the listener is doing is a threat with the consequence left out: "do that again and…".