7 ways to “just say YES!”

Yes? Yes, YES! Yes, yes, yes yes yes! Yes, it is; yes, it was; yes, I will. The inspiration of the well-known campaign slogan “Yes We Can” and the beginning of wedded bliss, “Yes, I do!” That euphoric three-letter word full of hope, happiness, and expectation. Yes. The affirmation par excellence.

The existentialist and logo therapist Victor Frankl wrote “Say Yes to Life,” a book launching the ideal of finding meaning in all forms of existence, good or bad as there is always a reason to continue living. Nietzsche implores his followers to “say yes to life” and Albert Einstein says everything starts with just one little word “yes.”

Although it’s etymology is questionable even to the best of scholars to whom explanations involve the usual German, Latin, Scandinavian, diphthongs, a lot of y’s aye’s and vowels, -gese (with g pronounced as y) has been around since the days of Old English.  

Yes is a

Noun (and verb) to give an affirmative reply - “Do you like coffee?’ ‘Yes.”

An interjection to express joy- “Yes”!

An adverb – to amplify an affirmation (“Yes, I do,”) a contradiction, (“you don’t like coffee. Oh yes I do”!) A question (“Yes, may I help you”?) and to show you are listening (“blah, blah, blah.’ ‘Yes, uh huh.”)

Uh huh? Yep, that brings us to the different ways to say it

Uh huh

This is great and universal used to acknowledge you are listening even if you aren’t, (“Did you do your homework?’ ‘Uh huh”) and listening even when you are but are busy to respond (“daaaddddddy, can I have an icecream?’ ‘Uh huh”) or have already said yeah or yes a lot (“yes, yeah, I agree, uh huh, uh huh.”)

Yeah

Yes is such a part of our life, so familiar, that we don’t bother with pronouncing the “s,” and soften it with an “h” - so this runs good in almost any situation from meetings to show empathy, (“Did you reach targets?’ ‘yea,”) to showing you are listening and on the same page, (“yeah, uh huh, yeah”) to informal situations (“Did you call Bob’? ‘Yeah.”)

Sure

This is another good one for when you’re not paying attention but want to pretend you are (“Does my butt look good in these?’ Sure.”) You can use it sarcastically when you don’t necessarily agree but can’t be bothered to get into a discussion (“He’s super smart.’ Sure.) Or you can use it when you don’t really want to answer yes or no but don’t want to outright say no (want to meet me for a drink after work?’ ‘Sure.”)

Yes

The original, use it for total clarity, pronounced all the way through to the s - jɛs/, a little cold. (“Do you agree with me?’ ‘Yes.”)

Yep

What about this friendly way of saying yes, we take the seriousness and chill off the word by substituting the “s” with a “p,” a letter that makes a nice pop meaning that we are feeling good about the exchange we are in and empathetic with the person. (“Did you finish the book?’ ‘Yep”)

OK

The quintessential American form of yes for complying with a request (“Can you drop the kids off at school before you go to work.’ ‘OK.)

Of course

Use it if the yes is a certainty and the yes would have been an obvious yes in the circumstance so much so that there was hardly any need to ask it. (“Can I borrow your car? ‘Of course!”)

Fo’shizzle

This is one that my friends in Chicago often pull out. If you’re on the same wavelength as someone and you mean yes but want to add a little fizzle and shizzle. (“Did you pick up some wine for tonight?’ ‘Fo’shizzle.”)

So say yes to marriage, picking up the wine, buying kids ice-cream, your boss’ request and lending your car but say it colloquially with a fo’ sho, true dat you bet ya, oh yeah, cool, I’d love that, totally, mm hmm or with an of course, you bet, agreed, no problem, or even formally by all means, definitely, absolutely, certainly, indeed, to the downright goofy roger, aye aye, okey dokey, righto, righty-ho.

And say “yes to life.”