yes
pronunciation
How to pronounce yes in British English:
UK [jes]
How to pronounce yes in American English:
US [jes]
-
- Noun:
- an affirmative
Word Origin
- yes
- yes: [OE] Yes is descended from Old English gese. It is thought that this was a compound formed from gēa ‘yes’ (ancestor of archaic English yea and related to German and Dutch ja ‘yes’) and sīe, the third-person present singular subjunctive of be, and that it therefore originally meant literally ‘yes, may it be so’. It was at first used as a response to negative questions, while yea was used for positive questions, but around the end of the 16th century this distinction began to disappear, and yea has since died out.=> yea
- yes (adv.)
- Old English gise, gese "so be it!," probably from gea, ge "so" (see yea) + si "be it!," third person imperative of beon "to be" (see be). Originally stronger than simple yea. Used in Shakespeare mainly as an answer to negative questions. As a noun from 1712. Yes-man is first recorded 1912, American English.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Yes , but they might not stop qaddafi .
- 2. Are we for the most part a wealthy country , yes .
- 3. Yes , the dollar is at 15-year lows against the yen .
- 4. The dealer said yes , and it was done .
- 5. And yes , maybe we are a little bit lazy .