Different Ways to Say "Yes" and "No" in English

If someone asks me if I want to do something,

I say yes if I want to do it,

and I say no if I don't want to do it.

There are, however, other ways to say yes and no in English.

Now, I must tell you this,

yes and no are the most common ways

to say you want to do something or to say you don't want to.

But these other ways of saying yes and no

are also quite common.

They're not some crazy words that we never use,

they are words that we actually use every day.

So in this English lesson,

I'll teach you a few more ways to say yes

and a few more ways to say no.

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One of the first ways of saying yes

in a different way is to say, of course.

But I do need to explain when we use this.

We use this when we want to say yes to someone

in a situation where we would never think of saying no.

A good example would be this.

If a friend of mine was going on a trip

and if they said, "Bob, can you pick up my mail

and water my plants while I'm gone?"

I would say, of course.

I could just say yes, but I would say of course

because I would never say no to that.

If a friend of mine was going on a trip,

I want to do whatever I need to do so they have a good trip.

So I would say, of course,

I would totally pick up your mail and water your plants

when you're gone.

But there'd probably be no guarantee

that the plants would survive,

but I certainly would water them.

Maybe I would bring Jen with

because she's better with plants than I am.

Another way of saying yes is one that we use in a situation,

again, where someone is asking for help

and it's the phrase, no problem.

If someone said to me, "I can't lift this box.

Bob, can you help me?"

I would say, no problem.

Let me grab the other end and help you lift it.

So, notice this is a way of saying yes

in a certain situation.

It's a situation where someone's asking you to do something

and you can respond by saying, no problem.

They're not asking if you want a candy

then you wouldn't say, no problem.

It wouldn't make sense.

But if someone says to you, hey,

would you be able to bring me home after work today,

my car is broken?

Instead of saying yes, I could say, no problem.

Where do you live?

I'm happy to give you a ride home.

Another way to say yes

if someone asks you to do something is to say, for sure.

Now, this is, I think a little bit like slang.

It's not pure slang,

but it's certainly a quick way

to say that you'll help someone do something.

If someone said to me, "Bob, I really, really need money,

can I borrow $100?"

I'd probably say, no.

But I might say, for sure, depending on who it is.

Sorry, I had to correct what I was thinking there

in my mind.

If one of my children really needed money,

and they said, "Dad, can I borrow $10?"

I would say for sure, but if some random person or,

yeah, I don't give away money very easily.

Anyways, if someone asks you to do something

and it's something that you don't mind doing,

you might say, for sure, and then do that thing for them.

Another way of saying yes is to say, sure thing.

And again, this would happen when someone asks you

for something.

If someone said to me, "Bob, can I borrow your car?"

I might say, sure thing.

Come over and get it.

Of course, if they don't have a car,

they might not be able to,

but I would certainly want to say yes,

and I would probably say, sure thing.

We have a lot of tools and equipment here on the farm,

and sometimes my friend wants to use something

to do some work at his place.

When he says, "Hey, Bob, can I borrow your tractor?"

I usually just say, sure thing, when do you need it?

And then we arrange a time for him to pick it up.

So, another way to say yes is to simply say, sure thing.

Okay, here's one more way to say yes

before we move on to talking about ways to say no.

If someone asks you if you want to do something

and you really want to do it,

you can say, I'd love to,

or I would love to

would be the full version of the sentence.

If someone said to me,

"Bob do you want to go out for dinner?

I'll pay."

I would say, I'd love to

because I love it when people take me out for dinner

and then they pay for it.

That's an awesome thing.

So if you're ever in a situation where someone's asking you

if you want to do something

and it's something you would really like to do,

you can respond by saying, I'd love to.

Okay, let's talk about how to say no

using different words or phrases,

and I'm going to use my jumping out of an airplane

with a parachute example.

If someone said to me,

"Bob, do you want to go up in a plane

and jump out with a parachute on?"

I would say, no way.

So I would use the word no, but I would add the word way.

We use this form of saying no

when there's no way we're ever going to say yes.

I just used the phrase right there.

If someone asked me to do something like that,

I'm afraid of heights.

I've told many of you that before.

If someone asked me that, I would simply say, no way.

It basically means there's nothing you could do

to convince me to do that activity.

No way.

There are times when someone might ask you to do something

and you don't want to do it,

and instead of saying no, you can just say, forget it.

Basically, when you say forget it,

you're saying that you don't want to do that thing.

I've heard my children say this before sometimes.

One of my children will say to another one of my children,

"You need to help me clean up the kitchen.

Dad said so."

And my other child might say, "Forget it.

I have other stuff to do.

You do it."

Then usually I step in

and kind of make sure everyone is happy

and doing what they're supposed to do.

But yes, sometimes in certain situations,

if someone tells you that you have to do something,

you can just say, forget it.

Sometimes it's a little rude,

but it is something we sometimes say.

Sometimes you wanna say no,

but sometimes you want to word it a little more strongly.

And in that situation, you could just say, never.

If someone said to me,

"Bob, you should eat these hot spicy chicken wings.

They are the hottest wings on earth."

I would say never.

I'm never going to do that.

So I'm not just saying no,

I'm saying no from now until the end of time.

I am not going to eat super, super hot chicken wings.

I do like hot food, but when things get to a certain level,

that's when I start saying no.

And when things get really, really hot, I just say, never.

I'm never going to eat that.

It's just too hot for me.

This last way of saying no is also a very strong way

of saying no, and it's the phrase, not in a million years.

If someone came to our school

and it was someone who owned lots of snakes

and they came to a science class

to show the students snakes.

If they said to me, "Bob, hold this snake."

I would say, not in a million years.

Basically, it's the same as saying never.

It's the same as saying no, but much, much, much stronger.

I don't like snakes.

If someone had pet snakes,

I'm not even sure if I'd be comfortable

visiting their house.

And then if someone asked me to hold one,

I would certainly say, not in a million years

or I guess I could just say no.

So I'm sitting here checking over the clips

that I just recorded for this lesson

and realized I didn't record an outro,

so I'll do it now.

Thanks for watching.

I hope you're having a good day.

I hope your English learning is going really, really well.

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Bye.

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