Да, нет (часть первая)
The standard Russian word for yes is да and for no — нет. For the most part they work pretty much like we would expect:
| — Ты хочешь чаю? — Да, пожалуйста. |
“Do you want some tea?” “Yes, please.” |
| — Ты хочешь пойти в кино? — Нет, спасибо. |
“Do you want to go to the movies?” “No, thanks.” |
Russian sometimes doesn't work quite the way we would expect, though, when answering a question that has не in it. Remember that не is often including in Russian questions to make the question softer, more polite. But if the question is in the negative in Russian, there must be a negative somewhere in the answer as well. Let's say you are in Russia waiting outside the subway station for a woman named Tanya. You've never met Tanya; your friends have arranged the meeting, and you have only a general description of her. You spot someone who sort of matches the description, so you walk up to her and say:
| — Извините, вы не Таня? — Нет, я не Таня. |
“Excuse me, you aren't Tanya by any chance, are you?” “No, I'm not Tanya.” |
In such a case, when the woman says нет, she is negating the idea of being Tanya. That interchange makes perfect sense to the American ear. Now consider this version:
| — Извините, вы не Таня? — Да, я не Таня. |
“Excuse me, you aren't Tanya by any chance, are you?” “No, I'm not Tanya.” |
In this case when the woman answers да, she is confirming your spoken negative supposition that she is not Tanya. Notice that despite the да in the original, it sounds better to have no in the English translation. (An English speaker would never say “Yes, I'm not Tanya” in this context.)
If the woman turns to be Tanya, then the question can be answered like this:
| — Извините, вы не Таня? — Нет, я Таня. |
“Excuse me, you aren't Tanya by any chance, are you?” “Yes, I'm Tanya.” |
In this case Tanya is denying your stated assumption that she is not Tanya, so she answers нет and then corrects you. Notice once again that word for word translation “No, I am Tanya” simply doesn't work in English.
Let's see a few more examples and note their translations carefully. Let's say you need to ask a Russian whether she speaks English. It may turn out like these examples:
| — Вы не говорите по-английски? — Нет, не говорю. |
“Do you happen to speak English?” “No, I don't.” |
| — Вы не говорите по-англисйки? — Да, не говорю. |
“Do you happen to speak English?” “No, I don't.” |
| — Вы не говорите по-англисйки? — Нет, говорю. |
“Do you happen to speak English?” “Yes, I do.” |
Notice this carefully: although very often да and нет correspond to English yes and no, sometimes the grammar of responding to a question requires a negative in Russian where it makes no sense in English. A professional translation in such a context requires replacing нет with yes in English. People with limited language experience might think “That's a bad translation or a dishonest translation because it says the opposite of what the words actually say.” They would be mistaken. Sometimes what appears to be an opposite translation is in fact the best translation, as long as it communicates the original intent and informational content of the source sentence.
5 comments
Вам скорее ответят:
- Да нет, я Таня.
или
- Да нет, я не Таня.
:)
{From native russian speaker point of view :) }
1.
— Извините, вы не Таня?
— Да, я не Таня.
This dialogue sounds odd to me. At least in Moscow region (where I live) the only “correct” negative (she is not Tanya) answer would be
- Нет, я не Таня
And positive (she is Tanya)
- Да, я Таня.
2.
Answer “Да, я не Таня” may be appropriate for question like “Я правильно понял, что вы не Таня?”
And “Нет, я Таня” would be good answer for smth like “Извините, вы не Лена?”
Don responds: I actually ran dialog #1 by an educated native speaker of Russian before posting it to the blog. By no coincidence, her name is Tanya. She confirms that for her the dialog is entirely possible. Certainly this approach to answering questions is part of the older norm for Russian; for instance, consider this page from a Soviet-era textbook.
That said, I do not doubt that the dialog is odd for you. Native speakers sometimes disagree on what sounds best/odd/not odd in their language.
That’s right. Notice that you have to always clearly define the answer in Russian. You shouldn’t translate answers to such polite questions with one word. It leads to confusion. The one who is asking will have to ask again: “Да-нет или да-да?”. And despite of fact there are just two options given in this question, responded will have to answer clearly this time.
That may be one of many reasons why Russian soldiery don’t ask polite questions. Subordinates can only answer “Так точно!” (Yes, sir!) or “Никак нет!” (No, sir!). If the question is polite then the answer won’t be clear.
At drilling our sergeant played jokes with this: “Не устали?”. We could say “Так точно” or “Никак нет” but he could treat both options as “Не устали”.
Excellent post, Don. I have made that kind of error many times in the past. Sort of reminds me of the difficulties that non-native speakers have in English with the definite versus indefinite article-which ironically we consider so simple that it is often chapter I in language texts. (should be chapter 99!)
I’d appreciate a reinforcement or follow-up on this lesson. Thanks.
This post is correct but I’d like to make a remark:
— Извините, вы не Таня?
— Нет, я не Таня.
— Извините, вы не Таня?
— Да, я не Таня.
In both cases the speaker does not sound much like making an assumption so the answer is not very appropriate and there’s a chance that you won’t be understood correctly. But if you make this look more like supposition, it will turn out just fine. Consider these:
— Извините, вы, наверное, Таня?
— Нет, я не Таня.
— Извините, вы, наверное, не Таня?
— Нет, я не Таня.
— Извините, вы, наверное, не Таня?
— Да, я не Таня.
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