{"id":25709,"date":"2017-01-03T05:05:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T04:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=25709"},"modified":"2017-10-26T15:08:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T13:08:54","slug":"si-senor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/si-senor\/","title":{"rendered":"Si, Se\u00f1or!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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!<\/em>“.* And while most people first learning French learn that the way to say ‘yes’<\/em>, is ‘oui’<\/strong>, did you know that there are actually two ways to say yes in French?**<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The differences between si<\/em> and oui<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally the way you say ‘yes<\/em>‘ in France (and other francophone countries) is to say ‘oui<\/strong>‘ . . . and as a rule, if you say ‘oui’ <\/strong>when you mean ‘yes’<\/em> you’ll do just fine. But the French also use ‘si’<\/strong> for when responding to a negative question or statement. Compare these examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Monique est fran\u00e7aise, n’est-ce pas? <\/strong>(Monique is French, isn’t she?)<\/em>
\n<\/em>Oui, Monique est fran\u00e7aise. <\/strong>(Yes, Monique is French.)<\/em><\/td>\n		Monique n\u2019est pas fran\u00e7aise. <\/strong>(Monique is not French.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Si. Elle est fran\u00e7aise. <\/strong>(Yes. She is French.) <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Est-ce que tu viens \u00e0 la f\u00eate ce soir\u00a0?<\/strong> (Are you coming to the party tonight\u00a0?)<\/em>
\n<\/strong>Oui je viens \u00e0 la f\u00eate ce soir.<\/strong> (Yes I\u2019m coming to the party tonight.)<\/em><\/td>\n		Tu ne viens pas ce soir\u00a0? <\/strong>(You\u2019re not coming tonight.)<\/em>
\nSi, je viens ce soir.<\/strong> (Yes, I am coming tonight.)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Marc est gentil.<\/strong> (Mark is nice.)
\n<\/em>Oui, il est tr\u00e8s gentil.<\/strong> (Yes, he is very nice.)<\/em><\/td>\n		Marc n\u2019est pas tr\u00e8s gentil.<\/strong> (Mark isn\u2019t very nice.)
\n<\/em>Si, il est tr\u00e8s gentil.<\/strong> (Yes, he is very nice.)<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Be careful though, because ‘si’ <\/em>can also mean ‘if’. <\/em>As in the common expression: ‘Avec des ‘si’ on referait le monde.’<\/strong> (With “ifs” one could remake the world.)<\/em> Often heard in response to someone complaining of a certain regret (‘Si seulement je n’avais pas . . .\u00a0<\/strong>‘ \/\u00a0‘If only I hadn’t . . . ‘)\u00a0<\/em>or lack or resources or opportuity (‘Si seulement j’avais\u00a0 . . . ‘<\/strong> \/\u00a0‘If only I had . . . ‘).<\/em><\/p>\n

* Or almost . . . “S\u00ed”<\/em> is the proper way to spell ‘yes’ in Spanish (with the accent).
\n** Ok, there are actually lots of ways to say yes in French. From the proper ‘oui’, ‘bien sur’, et ‘certainement’<\/em> (‘yes’, ‘of course’, and ‘certianly’) <\/em> to ‘voui’ <\/em>or ‘bah voui<\/em>‘ or even ‘et bah voui’<\/em> (all emphatic ways of saying ‘yeah<\/em>‘) and ‘ouais’ <\/em>(which is the cool, ‘d\u00e9contract\u00e9’ (‘relaxed’)<\/em> way of saying yes, but can also be an interjection akin to ‘wow<\/em>‘ or ‘whoa’<\/em>) to ‘mouais’ (<\/em>which is a more dubious or even doubtful version of ‘oui’) . . .<\/em> just to cite a few!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[346,432,408529],"class_list":["post-25709","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-french-grammar","tag-french-vocabulary","tag-oui"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t