22 Ways to Say YES in English Advanced Vocabulary Lesson
Hi!
I’m Vanessa, from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Let’s talk about 22 ways to say “yes”.
Are you ready to move beyond “yes” and expand
your vocabulary?
Well, today, we’re going to talk about 22
different ways to answer someone in the affirmative.
This could either mean “yes” or it could mean
just “I agree with you”.
Today, I’ve got 12 normal expressions that
you can use with no problem in daily life
or even at your job and then I also have 10
more slang, kind of silly ways to say “yes”.
You’re going to hear people use these, but
I want to make sure that you know what they
are and also know the kind of context that
they’re trying to use these in.
So with each expression, there is a counterpart.
There is a normal one and a slang one.
So we’re going to talk about each of these
in turn and then you’re going to see how they’re
used in a little quick conversation.
You’re going to hear two sentence a lot in
this lesson.
The first one is a normal question.
“Do you want to come over for dinner?”
“Do you want to come over for dinner?”
You’re going to hear this phrasal verb, “come
over”, a lot and it means, “Would you like
to come to my house and eat dinner together?”
“Do you wanna”, this natural pronunciation
of “want to”.
“Do you want to come over to my house for
dinner?”
Do you want to come over for dinner?
You’re also going to hear the kind of casual,
slang sentence that means the same thing and
that is, “You cool with coming over for dinner?”
“You cool with” something.
“You cool with going to English class with
me?”
“You cool with going to the movies?”
“You cool with eating sushi?”
“You cool with coming over to my house for
dinner?”
I use this sentence in my slang examples because
I wanted you to hear it again and again, but
I also wanted you to see the kind of situation
that you can use this slang “yes” expression
with.
The first two ways to say “yes” are, “Yeah!”
and “Oh yeah!”.
Usually, slang expressions are used for young
people, but this expression can be used by
anyone, as long as you feel really strongly
about what you’re responding to.
So, for example, if I said, “Hey, do you want
to join my course for free?”
You could say, “Oh, yeah!”
You’re really serious about it and you’re
excited.
You’re passionate.
You’re trying to emphasize, “Oh, yeah!”
Let’s watch this.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Yeah.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Oh, yeah.
Vanessa: The next two ways to say “yes” are
“Yup” and “Yuppers”.
Let’s start with the normal one, which is
“Yup”.
This could either be “Yup” or “Yep”, depending
on your personal preference and this is kind
of not-so-serious way to say yes.
Maybe you don’t really feel so strongly about
something, so you could say, “Yup.
Yup.”
“Do you like dogs?”
“Yup.”
Maybe you don’t love them, but they’re okay.
“Do you like dogs?”
“Yup.”
If you’re going to say “Yuppers”, this is
something I don’t really recommend saying,
but you’re going to hear people say this,
maybe in movies or TV shows, especially young
people, and maybe young people of a certain
generation.
Or maybe if someone’s trying to play a joke,
they might say this.
So, for me, I’ve heard this, but I don’t really
use this unless I’m just trying to be funny,
but you might hear someone say, “Hey, you
ate a lot of cotton candy today.”
You could say, “Yuppers!”
So it’s kind of a joke.
It’s just a silly little word that I wanted
to include to expand your mind and your vocabulary.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Yup.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Yuppers!
Vanessa: The third two expressions are “Sure”
and “Sure thing!”
You can use both of these to just say “yes”,
but when you use “Sure thing”, even though
this is slang and more casual, it’s pretty
strong, so similar to “Oh yeah!”
This is reserved for situations where you
feel like you really want to say “yes”, so
you might say, “Do you want to eat ice cream
tonight?”
“Oh, sure thing!”
You’re feeling really strongly about it.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Sure.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Sure thing!
Vanessa: The next two ways to say “yes” are
“For sure” and “Fo' shizzle”.
Let’s talk about the first one because that’s
the most serious expression.
Let’s say your friend and you decided to go
see a movie and, after the movie, your friend
said, “Oh, that was a great movie.
I really liked it.”
You could say, “Oh, for sure.
I liked it too.”
You’re just responding, “Yes, I liked it too.”
“For sure.”
The pronunciation for these two words is quite
similar, in fact.
Even though “for” includes an “O” and a “sure”
includes a “U”, they both sound like E-R.
“For sure.”
“For sure.”
I hope that you can repeat that pronunciation
with me.
“For sure.
For sure.”
What about the second slang expression?
Well, this one is quite silly and it’s kind
of similar to “Yuppers” in that we don’t really
use this often in daily life, but you’re going
to hear it and it’s often kind of used to
imitate or make fun of gangster-style English.
So if you want to just be silly and say, “Oh,
that movie was great.”
“Fo' shizzle, it was great.”
It’s just silly and kind of funny, so you
might hear someone in a TV show say this.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: For sure.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Fo' shizzle.
Vanessa: The next two ways to say “yes” are
“Okay” or “K” and “Okie dokie”.
The word “okay” is pretty straightforward.
“Do you want to come to my house for dinner?”
“Okay.”
Or you could just say, “K”, and this is not
quite so serious.
Maybe you’re not so excited about something,
but you could just say, “K”.
The slang expression “Okie dokie” means “Okay”,
but it’s used to kind of be silly or to make
a situation a little bit more lighthearted.
So let’s say that you’re about to go on vacation
and your family says, “Hey, it’s time to get
in the car.”
You could say, “Okie dokie, let’s go.”
It just means “Okay”, but you’re just being
silly and being funny.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Okay.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Okie dokie.
Vanessa: The next two expressions are actually
not words, but they’re more sounds that you
make with your mouth.
The first one is “Uh-huh” and the second one
is “Mm-hmm (affirmative)”.
The first one, “Uh-huh”, is a little more
normal and serious and this is maybe when
you’re not so interested in what someone has
to say, but you’re still going to respond
“yes”.
So let’s say that your friend asks you, “I
have a baseball game tomorrow.
My team is playing.
Do you want to come and watch?”
You could say, “Uh-huh.”
You don’t really care about baseball, but
you feel kind of obligated.
“Uh-huh, okay.
Okay, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
I’m listening, I know.
Uh-huh, okay.
I’ll do it.”
You’re not so passionate.
You’re not saying, “Oh, yeah!”
You’re just kind of responding affirmatively
without really committing your feelings.
Now, the slang expression “Mm-hmm (affirmative)”
could be used in that same way.
You’re not really committing yourself, but
you’re still saying “yes”, or it could be
more positive.
So let’s say your friend says, “Hey, do you
want to come to my baseball game?”
You could say, “Mm-hmm (affirmative),” and
you can tell by the tone of my voice that
I don’t really care about going to his baseball
game, but I’m still going to do it.
I’m still saying “Yes.
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mm-hmm (affirmative).”
But if you want to say it in a slightly different
way, let’s say that, earlier, I had told him
“Yes, I’m going to come to your baseball game.
Yeah, I’m going to come!”
He might ask me, “Are you still interested
in coming to my game?”
I could say, “Mm-hmm (affirmative)!
Mm-hmm (affirmative)!”
It’s a little more positive.
The inflection in my voice is more optimistic.
“Mm-hmm (affirmative), I’m still interested!
Mm-hmm (affirmative)!”
You can see the difference between “Mm-hmm
(affirmative),” and “Mm-hmm (affirmative)!”
The tone is a little bit higher.
“Mm-hmm (affirmative)!
Mm-hmm (affirmative).”
And my eyes and my face are more interested.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Uh-huh.
Vanessa: You still cool with coming over for
dinner?
Dan: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Vanessa: The next two affirmative expressions
are “Right” and “Right on!”
The first one, “Right”, is a little more normal
and the most common time that we use this
is responding to the tag question, “Right?”
So let’s say I say to you, “You’re making
dinner tonight, right?”
You could say, “Right.”
You’re just responding with the same word
that I finished the previous sentence with
and this is the most common way to use this,
so when you hear someone say, “Right?”
You can say, “Right.”
But the slang expression, “Right on”, is kind
of associated with surfer slang.
At least that’s the image that comes to my
mind, is someone with a surfboard and they’re
walking on the beach and someone says, “Wow,
that was a great wave that you just caught!”
And they say, “Right on!”
So you might see this in some movies or TV
shows where these situations come up, or maybe
someone’s trying to imitate this kind of person,
this kind of persona of “I’m a cool beach
guy,” so you might hear this in those situations.
You want to come over for dinner, right?
Dan: Right.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Right on.
Vanessa: The next two expressions are “All
right” and “Alrighty”.
The first one you can use in a lot of different
situations.
Let’s imagine that your boss asks you to finish
your report by 3 PM and he says, “Hey, can
you finish your report?”
You could say, “All right.”
“All right.”
It’s not so enthusiastic, but it’s not too
negative like “Uh-huh”.
You’re just simply stating, “All right, I’ll
do it.”
It’s kind of professional.
On the other hand, the slang expression, “Alrighty”
is more casual, but it’s also when you want
to be silly or kind of funny.
So if your friend says, “Hey, let’s go have
some coffee,” you could say, “Alrighty!”
This is kind of overly enthusiastic, maybe
a little bit of an exaggeration, but if you
want to just be silly, you could say, “Alrighty,
let’s go!”
It’s just coffee, it’s not that exciting.
Maybe it is that exciting for you, but it’s
not the most amazing thing in the world.
Oh, maybe it is the most amazing thing in
the world to you, but let’s imagine that you
just feel kind of neutral about it.
It’s a good time, it’ll be fun, but it’s not
amazing.
You could say, “Alrighty, let’s go!”
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: All right.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Alrighty!
Vanessa: The next set of expressions is “Definitely”
or “Certainly” and “Totally”, “Totes”, “Totes
ma goats”.
Let’s start with the more serious ones, which
are “Definitely”, “Certainly”.
This is something that you can use in a lot
of situations, including professional ones.
So let’s imagine again that your boss asks
you to finish your report at 3 o’clock.
You could say, “Definitely.”
“Certainly.
I will do it.
I can get it finished.”
This is clear and you’re being professional
about it.
On the other hand, if you said, “Totally”,
it’s a little more informal, kind of youthful
or maybe juvenile.
It’s not a problem if you want to exude this
kind of feeling with your friends but, at
a job, it’s not very acceptable and it’s certainly
not acceptable at your job to use the even
stronger slang expression, “Totes”.
This is a more modern slang.
I feel like it just came out in the last couple
years, but it’s just a shortened version of
“Totally”.
“You want to go to the movies?”
“Totes.”
“That was a really great movie.”
“Totes.”
Maybe you’ll say this, maybe you won’t, but
it’s something that maybe teenagers might
be more likely to say or people who are kind
of imitating young people.
And, if you want to be a little bit weird
and crazy, I don’t really recommend it, kind
of like “Yuppers” and “Fo' shizzle”.
This expression “Totes ma goats” is something
that my husband says and I guess he heard
it from somewhere, so maybe someone else says
this and you might hear it, but there’s always
ways to add on to slang expressions to make
them even more crazy and this is just one
option.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Definitely.
Vanessa: You cool with coming over for dinner?
Dan: Totally.
Totes.
Totes ma goats.
Vanessa: The next two are “You bet” and “You
betcha!”
“You bet” just means “yes”, but it’s pretty
strong and it’s something that I don’t really
recommend using in a professional situation,
but you can certainly use it with your family
and friends.
“Do you like this dinner?”
“You bet.
Oh, that was great.”
The expression, “You betcha”, is something
that kind of exudes, maybe, the South of the
US.
So when someone says, “You betcha”, you kind
of feel like they’re responding to a question
like, “Hey, you ready to come in and eat some
pie?”
Someone might say, “You betcha!”
You might see this in movies or TV shows with
characters who have those kind of personalities.
So if that’s you, you can use it, but I want
to make sure you can understand that person
and their personality through the vocabulary
that they use.
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: You bet!
Vanessa: Danny, you ready for dinner?
Dan: You betcha!
Vanessa: The next expression is “Of course!”
“Do you like English?”
“Of course!”
This one doesn’t have a slang counterpart,
at least that I could come up with.
If you can come up with one, let me know in
the comments.
But it is quite strong and you’re just responding,
“Of course!
Yes!”
“Do you like English?”
“Of course!”
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Of course!
Vanessa: And our final expression today is
“Sounds good!”
Or you can lengthen it and say, “Sounds good
to me!”
Your friend might say, “Hey, do you want to
go to New York next week?”
“Sounds good to me!
I agree, yes.
This is a great idea.
Sounds good to me!”
Do you want to come over for dinner?
Dan: Sounds good to me!
Vanessa: That was a lot of expressions that
mean “yes”.
I hope that, today, your vocabulary and your
mind was able to expand.
I have a challenge for you now.
In the comments below this video, I want you
to write a question and then write an answer
using one of these 22 “yes” expressions.
Make sure that your question matches the answer.
Don’t ask a professional question and then
answer with a slang expression.
Make sure that they match and, if you have
any questions, feel free to ask me.
I’ll try my best to help you.
Thanks so much for learning with me!
Have a great day.
Bye!
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye!