No, you’re not in the wrong place. This is indeed your favorite French blog. If you know any Spanish though, you’ll recognize this week’s title as Spanish for “Yes, Sir!“.* And while most people first learning French learn that the way to say ‘yes’, is ‘oui’, did you know that there are actually two ways to say yes in French?**

The differences between si and oui.

Generally the way you say ‘yes‘ in France (and other francophone countries) is to say ‘oui‘ . . . and as a rule, if you say ‘oui’ when you mean ‘yes’ you’ll do just fine. But the French also use ‘si’ for when responding to a negative question or statement. Compare these examples:

Be careful though, because ‘si’ can also mean ‘if’. As in the common expression: ‘Avec des ‘si’ on referait le monde.’ (With “ifs” one could remake the world.) Often heard in response to someone complaining of a certain regret (‘Si seulement je n’avais pas . . . ‘ / ‘If only I hadn’t . . . ‘) or lack or resources or opportuity (‘Si seulement j’avais  . . . ‘ / ‘If only I had . . . ‘).

* Or almost . . . “Sí” is the proper way to spell ‘yes’ in Spanish (with the accent).
** Ok, there are actually lots of ways to say yes in French. From the proper ‘oui’, ‘bien sur’, et ‘certainement’ (‘yes’, ‘of course’, and ‘certianly’) to ‘voui’ or ‘bah voui‘ or even ‘et bah voui’ (all emphatic ways of saying ‘yeah‘) and ‘ouais’ (which is the cool, ‘décontracté’ (‘relaxed’) way of saying yes, but can also be an interjection akin to ‘wow‘ or ‘whoa’) to ‘mouais’ (which is a more dubious or even doubtful version of ‘oui’) . . . just to cite a few!