you never can tell

Idioms  

1. Also, you never know. Perhaps, possibly, one can't be certain, as in You never can tell, it might turn into a beautiful day, or You may yet win the lottery—you never know. The first term uses tell in the sense of “discern,” a usage dating from the late 1300s; the variant dates from the mid-1800s.

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Example Sentences

When they get up and start dancing to Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell, the scene homages Jean-Luc Godard’s 1964 French New Wave classic Bande à Part – the poster of which is behind the director during the BBC interview – where characters spontaneously dance in a café.

From BBC

Even better, he wrote some of his biggest hits behind bars, including “Nadine,” “No Particular Place to Go” and “You Never Can Tell.”

From Washington Post

He does not seem inclined to, but you never can tell.

From Literature

You never can tell if the prettiest things are going to be practical, or if a geared and wired creation also passes the experts' taste test.

From Salon

Doudrop apparently turned on Eva Marie after the match, but with WWE, you never can tell for sure.

From Los Angeles Times