“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

English Lesson: I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

You're in a meeting at work. One of your coworkers makes a suggestion. You don't like the suggestion, so you politely reject it.

I’m not sure that’s a good idea.

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that

Use "that" to refer to something that a person just said:

A: I'm going to try to start a career as an actor.

B: So does that mean you're moving to L.A.?

Or you can talk about something that you heard on T.V. or radio using "that".

I'm not sure (clause)

This is a very polite way to say that you don't agree with something. It's similar to "I don't think..." But you use "I'm not sure..." when you need to disagree with someone without offending them.

After "I'm not sure" you use a clause. For example:

A: What about Regina?

B: Hmm... You know, I'm not sure she's ready for an assignment of this scope.

A: I think we should set up a weekly meeting to discuss our progress.

B: I'm not sure that a weekly meeting is necessary. Could we meet once every two weeks instead?

As you can see in these examples, the clause sometimes starts with "that" and sometimes doesn't. It's more grammatically correct to use "that" but it's common to leave it out in spoken English.

a good idea

An idea that you think is smart and useful is "a good idea". 

You can use "good idea" in these ways:

That's a good idea. 

A: We can ask Keisuke.

B: Good idea.

Olivia had a good idea. She suggested that we each score the applications separately and then add up the scores.