Japanese yes and no

[pandaman101]

A lot of Japanese learning books teach that はい means yes and いいえ means no, but from what I've learned that not really true.

What confuses English speakers is that sometimes instead of answering はい you answer いいえ , i think thats when you use a sentence in the negative.

But i haven't found any lessons on the internet about this, can someone give me some exampels on how to answer like that. Its really confusing to me (esp with the lack of information I found on the internet).

Thanks

[RealJames]

You don't drink alcohol?
English; no i don't
Japanese; yes i don't OR yes you are right

does that help?

[evanny]

you can also use うん and ううん as for yes and no...but probably you'll get even more confused specially when speaking.

[jesselt]

Another difference is when someone thanks you for something you reply いいえ whereas in English you might say "sure" or "yep"

[Decimus]

Originally Posted by pandaman101

A lot of Japanese learning books teach that はい means yes and いいえ means no, but from what I've learned that not really true.

What confuses English speakers is that sometimes instead of answering はい you answer いいえ , i think thats when you use a sentence in the negative.

But i haven't found any lessons on the internet about this, can someone give me some exampels on how to answer like that. Its really confusing to me (esp with the lack of information I found on the internet).

Thanks

When answering "Yes or No" questions, the English "Yes or No" are tied to the content of the answers. "Yes" is used when you're affirming something (Yes, I have done something/Yes, it is here/Yes, it is something), while "No" is used when the answer is in the negative. (No, I have not done it/No, there's nothing here/No, that is not something)

The Japanese 「はい」 and 「いいえ」, on the hand, signifies agreement with the proposition put forth by the question. That is, you use 「はい」 when your answer agrees with the suggested statement, while 「いいえ」 is used for the opposite. (your answer disagrees)

Consider the following question:

「（あなたには）ご兄弟がいますか。」
"(Do you) have any siblings?"

「はい、います。」　(That is correct, I do.) -> Yes, I do.
「いいえ、いません。」 (That is incorrect, I don't.) -> No, I don't.

In this case, since the question is in the affirmative , 「はい」 and [いいえ」 map directly to "Yes" and "No".

Now consider the opposite:

「ご兄弟がいませんか。」
"Don't you have any siblings?"

「いいえ、います。」　(That is incorrect, I do.) -> Yes, I do.
「はい、いません。」 (That is correct, I don't.) -> No, I don't.

Since the question is phrased as a negation, 「はい」 agrees with the negation, and hence maps to "No", while 「いいえ」 disagrees with the negation, turning the answer into the affirmative, and hence maps to "Yes" instead.

[pandaman101]

oh ok thankyou i understand much better now.

[masaegu]

Unlike in textbooks where you might see every yes-no question answered with はい/いいえ , Japanese-speakers don't really use either too often, especially いいえ.　 I'm a native speaker and I honestly cannot remember when I said いいえ the last time.

In answering yes-no questions, we usually just repeat the most important part of the predicate of the question sentence in either the affirmative or negative form.