英語小知識：22種方式說“YES”!

日期：2022-11-29 10:07 點擊：

看了本文，下一次在商業(yè)會談或者有人問你要不要一起吃個冰淇淋、跳個舞，別再只會說“yes”了！

 

全英文閱讀，你敢挑戰(zhàn)嗎？

1. yes

You can probably do better than this most standard of affirmations. The word yes, by the way, is exactly as old as you’d expect, dating all the way back to the Old Englishgēse, gīse, probably from an unrecorded phrase meaning ‘may it be so’.

2. yea

If you want to inject an archaic flavour into your response, then give yea a try. It’s also used as the response for an affirmative vote in the US Congress, so you can feel legislative as well as archaic!

3. OK

Referred to by some as America’s greatest contribution to the English language, OK has along and complicated history.

4. okey-dokey

The goofy younger brother of OK, okey-dokey is a surefire way to offer ad laidback, jokey affirmative.

5. by all means

By which means? All of them! This imploring affirmative suggests that ‘yes’ is being offered in every way possible. Don’t forget about its negating cousin, by no means.

6. affirmative

One way to give an affirmation is, well, to just say affirmative! Largely a North American interjection, affirmative is also heard in the phrase ‘in the affirmative’, as in ‘you answered in the affirmative when I asked about that ice cream’.

7. aye aye

You can almost hear the waves and taste the salty breeze when you use this one. This seaworthy affirmation is often heard in the fuller ‘aye aye, Captain’. Of course, the shorteraye is more common, but far less seaworthy (and, well, fun).

8. roger

In radio communication, roger is used to acknowledge receipt of a message. In extended use, though, we’ve been deploying roger for quite some time. ‘Can you go grab me an ice cream?’ ‘Roger!’

9. 10-4

If you’ve got that hankering for a radio reference, but roger doesn’t quite suit you, then consider the brisk and official 10-4, which is part of the ‘ten-code’, the code of signals (all beginning with the number 10) originally used in police radio communication in the US and later adopted by Citizens’ Band radio operators. The phrase means ‘message received’.

10. uh-huh

The quintessential verbalized shrug, uh-huh conveys assent, but is also one of the more noncommittal ways to say yes.

11. righto

Ah! Here’s an especially British way to go about it. Of course, you can leave off the ‘o’ on the end and leave it at ‘right!’, but how chipper does that sound in comparison? Not at all as chipper.

12. very well

Both very well and very good convey a flavour of acceptance rather than excitement. Can you hear that slight note of exasperation? ‘Oh, very well then, come inside …’

13. yup

Yup and its variation yep are such a joy to say because they all have that delightful plosive ‘p’.

14. yuppers

Yuppers (and its cousin yeppers) boldly go for the extension. Perhaps best used when it comes to childish pursuits, as in: ‘You want more cotton candy?!’ ‘Yuppers!’

15. right on

Feeling an overwhelming sense of approval? Then we recommend the hearty right on as a rejoinder.

16. ja

Used in South African English (drawn from Dutch), this ‘yes’ interjection is also found in German.  This raucous affirmation is also sometimes spelled yah.

17. surely

Besides guiding the conversation straight into a thicket of Airplane! references, surely also does a fine job of imparting enthusiastic assent.

18. amen

Want to insert a little religious flavour into your response? Have a go with amen, which goes all the way back to the Hebrew word āmēn, meaning ‘truth, certainty’. Usually uttered at the end of a prayer or hymn, meaning ‘so be it’, amen is also used to express agreement or assent, sometimes in the form amen to that.

19. fo’ shizzle

Do you dare? If you’re feeling gutsy, drop fo’ shizzle into your lexicon. Be warned, though, that shizzle on its own is typically a euphemism for ‘shit’. The response for (or fo’) shizzle, on the other hand, is roughly equivalent to for sure or definitely.

20. totally

You might risk sounding a little spaced-out with this one, but it’s so totally worth the attempt.

21. sure

This is the response for someone who hemmed and hawed, but came down on the ‘yes’ side eventually.

22. yessir

Gender of the addressee aside, this reply can offer either deep-seated respect or canny insubordination.