How do you say Yes in Russian and what’s Yes-yes-yes?

Today I am going to tell you what ‘yes’ means in Russian. The most common Russian word for ‘yes’ is «Да». Sometimes Russians say it just once; sometimes we say it three times in a row – «Да-да-да». What’s the difference between them? For example, someone asks you in Russian: ‘Do you have a FB account?’ («Ты есть на фейсбуке?») and you answer them in Russian ‘yes’ — «Да».

Or another question ‘Did you pay for the internet?’ («Ты заплатил за интернет?») you answer ‘yes’ in Russian — «Да».

Or ‘Do you have black jeans?’ («У тебя есть черные джинсы?») and you say ‘yes’ in Russian — «Да».

‘Yes-yes-yes’ is not just a stupid repeatition of ‘yes’ in Russian.

So as you see, all these examples of saying Yes in Russian are just positive answers to questions. When you want to give a positive answer to a question in Russian, you just say ‘yes’ — «Да».

So when do Russians say ‘yes-yes-yes’ — «Да-да-да»? We say it three times when we want to say that we agree with the statement (we are not answering a question!).

For example, someone says ‘Damn, I am cold at nights!’ («Черт, я замерзаю по ночам!») and you may reply «Да-да-да» which would mean ‘Yeah, you are damn right, I am cold too’ («Да, черт побери, я тоже»).

Another example of saying ‘yes-yes-yes’ in Russian. There are three people in the room, Alexey, Oksana and Nickolay. Alexey asks Oksana ‘By the way, when did you buy your car?’ («Кстати, когда ты купила машину?») And Nickolay says ‘Yes-yes-yes’ «Да-да-да» which in this case means ‘I agree with the question, wanted to ask it myself’.

So that’s it! If you have any questions about how to say Yes in Russian or about ‘yes-yes-yes’, feel free to ask in the comments section. You are welcome to subscribe to Speak Russian Like Russians so then we won’t lose each other on the vast spaces of the Internet!

Free Russian audio lessons online: words, pronunciation, texts. How do you say Yes in Russian and what’s Yes-yes-yes?