8 ms·

Wow, English could really benefit from this.

awongh 7y ago
In english, as mentioned re. australia below (and also america), the negation of a negative is: 'no, yea' https://pics.me.me/california-english-no-yeah-yes-yeah-no-yeah-no-for-11837240.png https://pics.me.me/california-english-no-yeah-yes-yeah-no-ye...
- lostlogin 7y ago
  ‘Yeah na’ in New Zealand.
- juliangamble 7y ago
  'Yeah nah' - has variations across the English speaking world: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/253960/15280 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/253960/15280
- yesenadam 7y ago
  Hmm, not sure about that. Sydney here. I can't think offhand of a context where 'No, yeah' would have much meaning, if any. I never hear it. Does sound like bush talk, maybe, but not sure. e.g. "You don’t like me, do you?" "No, yeah" (or "yeah, no") would just be a meaningless, confusing response. You'd say "Yes! of course I do" or something. There's that old joke where a lecturer is telling the audience about how two affirmatives never make a negative in English, and a voice is heard "Yeah yeah". I guess you could try "You don't like me, do you?" "No no, I do!". But whatever's said, the meaning would be determined mostly by the tone of voice, facial expression, body language etc
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    Perth here. "nah yeah" is common. the "nah" indicates disagreement with the statement, and the "yeah" affirms the positive. Often with a restatement of the statement attached. e.g: "nah, yeah I like you mate"
dboreham 7y ago
"Nah", no?
peteretep 7y ago
"Actually" gets you most of the way there
rm445 7y ago
Using 'so', as in, 'I do so!' seems to carry almost the identical meaning to me, but it's hardly as universal and idiomatic as the French 'si'.
OJFord 7y ago
We had yea/nay/yes/no. The former pair are not just 'olde' ways of saying latter; the equivalent of 'si' is actually 'yes', we just started using it for 'oui' too.
marcus_holmes 7y ago
Australian English has this... "yeah, nah" and "nah, yeah" are commonly used as replies to negative sentences. Well, all sentences really, but in this context negative ones. "You've got no chance of beating that thing in a fight, mate" "yeah, nah" (I agree) "Reckon it's never going to rain again?" "nah, yeah" (it will, eventually)
- nicwilson 7y ago
  and the classic negatory chain of Yeah! (yes)-> Yeah, nah! (no)-> Yeah, nah, for sure! (yes)
  - mocha_nate 7y ago
    Pretty sure you can mix and match and it depends on the emphasis and tone of the speaker: “Do you serve Pepsi here?” -(no) “yeah no, we are all out” -(no) “no, yeah we are all out” -(yes) “no yeah, we got it” -(yes) “yeah, no we got it”
    - marcus_holmes 7y ago
      it's always the last value that counts. Your example of "no, yeah we're all out" doesn't actually work, because the "yeah" is dangling. The "yeah, no" works (the yeah agrees with the question, we do serve Pepsi, but the no modifies it because we're all out). and the same for the "yeah, no" in the second example - the "no" is dangling. but yeah, it can be confusing if the tone of the original question implies a negative (like "you don't serve Pepsi here do you?"). took me ages to work out that the first value doesn't matter ;)
empath75 7y ago
Most people just rephrase the question in response to avoid ambiguity but that does seem inefficient.
paublyrne 7y ago
Au contraire

In english, as mentioned re. australia below (and also america), the negation of a negative is: 'no, yea' https://pics.me.me/california-english-no-yeah-yes-yeah-no-yeah-no-for-11837240.png https://pics.me.me/california-english-no-yeah-yes-yeah-no-ye...

lostlogin 7y ago
‘Yeah na’ in New Zealand.
juliangamble 7y ago
'Yeah nah' - has variations across the English speaking world: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/253960/15280 https://english.stackexchange.com/a/253960/15280
yesenadam 7y ago
Hmm, not sure about that. Sydney here. I can't think offhand of a context where 'No, yeah' would have much meaning, if any. I never hear it. Does sound like bush talk, maybe, but not sure. e.g. "You don’t like me, do you?" "No, yeah" (or "yeah, no") would just be a meaningless, confusing response. You'd say "Yes! of course I do" or something. There's that old joke where a lecturer is telling the audience about how two affirmatives never make a negative in English, and a voice is heard "Yeah yeah". I guess you could try "You don't like me, do you?" "No no, I do!". But whatever's said, the meaning would be determined mostly by the tone of voice, facial expression, body language etc
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  Perth here. "nah yeah" is common. the "nah" indicates disagreement with the statement, and the "yeah" affirms the positive. Often with a restatement of the statement attached. e.g: "nah, yeah I like you mate"

dboreham 7y ago

"Nah", no?

peteretep 7y ago

"Actually" gets you most of the way there

rm445 7y ago

Using 'so', as in, 'I do so!' seems to carry almost the identical meaning to me, but it's hardly as universal and idiomatic as the French 'si'.

OJFord 7y ago

We had yea/nay/yes/no. The former pair are not just 'olde' ways of saying latter; the equivalent of 'si' is actually 'yes', we just started using it for 'oui' too.

marcus_holmes 7y ago

Australian English has this... "yeah, nah" and "nah, yeah" are commonly used as replies to negative sentences. Well, all sentences really, but in this context negative ones. "You've got no chance of beating that thing in a fight, mate" "yeah, nah" (I agree) "Reckon it's never going to rain again?" "nah, yeah" (it will, eventually)

nicwilson 7y ago
and the classic negatory chain of Yeah! (yes)-> Yeah, nah! (no)-> Yeah, nah, for sure! (yes)
- mocha_nate 7y ago
  Pretty sure you can mix and match and it depends on the emphasis and tone of the speaker: “Do you serve Pepsi here?” -(no) “yeah no, we are all out” -(no) “no, yeah we are all out” -(yes) “no yeah, we got it” -(yes) “yeah, no we got it”
  - marcus_holmes 7y ago
    it's always the last value that counts. Your example of "no, yeah we're all out" doesn't actually work, because the "yeah" is dangling. The "yeah, no" works (the yeah agrees with the question, we do serve Pepsi, but the no modifies it because we're all out). and the same for the "yeah, no" in the second example - the "no" is dangling. but yeah, it can be confusing if the tone of the original question implies a negative (like "you don't serve Pepsi here do you?"). took me ages to work out that the first value doesn't matter ;)

empath75 7y ago

Most people just rephrase the question in response to avoid ambiguity but that does seem inefficient.

paublyrne 7y ago

Au contraire