"I don't know what to say"

[sydneyny]

Last night I was talking with my Japanese friend and she said the most common way to say “I don’t know what to say” is「なんていったらいいのかわからない。」

I know that なんていったら is a form of なんという, and that it has a variety of uses, but in the context of this sentence I’m not too sure what’s going on grammatically prior to のかわからない.

Any insight is appreciated. Resources as well.

I’ve done a fair bit of Googling and found some possible answers, but still don’t feel like I have enough of a grasp on it and what’s going on in the sentence.

[Kumirei]

These articles should help, providing you understand 何て言う
Imabi: The Contitionals
Imabi: Conditional Phrases

[thornarm]

This is an embedded question.

@sydneyny

なんて = what いったら いい=is good to say, should say の=nominalizer か=question

so literally we get:

What would be good to say? I don’t know.
or
What should I say? I don’t know.

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