Oui is probably the first French word you have learned. That or ‘Bonjour‘.
The first French word you rolled on your tongue, pronounced right or wrong…
In fact, you might even have met people who said ‘Yes, I speak French’, when all they can say is ‘Oui‘… Very useful word indeed, but maybe it’d be a stretch to qualify ‘oui‘ as a full-on French vocabulary.
Plus, did you know that, depending on the situation, OUI might not be the word you need to say?
So, in this article let’s see, 10 ways to say yes in French.
Author : Marie Drouvin
Salut! Je suis Marie and I'm on a mission to make learning French simple. You can find me on Youtube, or here, on this blog. And if you want to know more about how to learn French, take a look at my book.
Yes in French - Oui
First and most importantly! If you don’t know this one – OUI.
Standard French to say yes of course. Interesting to pronounce though, because it contains one of the special combination of sounds in the French language – OU.
Ain’t French pronunciation fun?
An exemple, in context, for the road!
Est-ce que tu parles français? : Do you speak French?
Oui, je parle français couramment. : Yes, I speak French fluently.
Parfait!
Yes in French - Oui merci
For the second way to yes in French, it’s important to remember that, in French, and with French people, you need to be polite.
That’s an essential component of French culture (and many other cultures), and one I am particularly remembered of when I see the way some people address others online…
I have a whole article on the subject of French politeness, and another one on what French culture actually is, which I really advise you to go and check out.
So, the second way you can say OUI, is to say OUI MERCI.
It is simply: a polite way to say yes.
You should use it when someone is asking if you want something, and you accept.
PS : there is a polite way to decline in French too.
Est ce que tu veux du thé? : Do you want tea?Oui merci. : Yes thank you.
Easy, right?
Yes in French - Ouais / Mouais
The third way is a casual way to say OUI. And it is OUAIS.
The sound is /è/ – /ou – è/. (Not the International phonetic Alphabet, but in terms of equivalent French sounds).
And sometimes, you will hear with a /m/ at the beginning.
And it sounds like this.
MOUAIS
You know, it’s not a very dynamic way to say YES. If people reply to you with a OUAIS, maybe you have not convinced them very much.
Maybe they are not really interested in what you are saying.
Or maybe they are French teenagers in one of their legendary moment of extreme happiness.
So watch out for this one.
OUAIS / MOUAIS : yeah
Ouais is kind of slang-ish.
So be careful. Beginners, try to avoid it so that you don’t mix different level of language, and stick with the standard yes.
Yes in French - Si
The fourth way to say OUI in French, is SI.
Yes, just like the Spanish yes. Minus the accent.
SI can be a bit confusing because it’s a YES that is negative.
It means someone said something with a negation in the sentence, and you are contradicting them by saying ‘yes, actually, yes’.
Si : negative yes
For example.
Tu n’a pas encore reçu ta carte. – You still haven’t received you card.Si, je l’ai reçu ce matin : Actually yes, I received it this morning.
It IS part of basic French and you will hear this a lot from native speakers.
So if you’re planning for an immersion, or wanted to become fluent (hey don’t be shy) – it’s a word you should definitely learn and use it.
Yes in French - Ok / D'accord / ça roule
The fifth way to say YES in French. And we saw that together two weeks ago in another article.
And it is to say OK. Or D’ACCORD, or ÇA ROULE. And there is 10 other ways in this article, which I will link here.
Definitely a bunch of word to know too if you want to learn how to speak French and actually speak with people.
Yes in French - Bien sûr / évidement
YES also means OF COURSE.
Can you do that? Yes, I can, of course.
In this situation, in French, you would say something like BIEN SUR.
Tu as pensé à faire un gâteau pour le cours de français? : Did you remember to bake a cake for the French class?Bien sûr! Il est dans mon sac : Of course, it’s in my bag.
Or EVIDEMMENT.
Tu es sûre que c’est la bonne pronunciation? : Are you sure it’s the right proper pronunciation?
Evidemment, je l’ai appris sur Just French It. : Of course (evidently), I learned it on Just French It.
Be careful, here the sound you are pronouncing is an /a/ sound. EVID/A/MMENT.
Both words have a kind of a posh, formal vibe. You’ll find them in most French courses because they are part of normal French from 50 years ago.
And even though usually, French textbooks are very bad to weeding out the posh words we don’t use anymore, these ones, we do use! So it’s worth learning them.
Yes in French - Carrément
Another way you can say YES in a very casual, dynamic, young way to say it (or maybe I’m biased because that is something I say a lot), and it is CARREMENT.
Literally, it would mean Squarely.
Not literally, it means TOTALLY.
Le masculin et le féminin en français, c’est un peu compliqué, non? : Masculine and Feminine in French is a bit complicated, isn’t it?Carrément, je comprends rien. : Totally, I don’t understand a thing.
If that sentence deeply resonate with you : Masculine and Feminine in French explained simply.
You sometimes can actually hear Carrément within sentences as well. But that’s another topic, that maybe we will cover in another article…
Careful, this word could be categorised as conversational slang. Only use in spoken French!
Yes in French - Bah oui
This one is really interesting, BAH OUI.
Depending on where you are in France, sometimes, you’ll hear /ba/ sometimes it’d be /bè/.
In the north of France it’s more like a /bai/, it’s in between the /a/ and the /è/.
Note: this is not proper phonetics. Use this information to compare it with other words you may know how to pronounce that contain those sounds.
I am not expecting you to say that with a correct pronunciation, but if you hear it, here’s what it means:
It means ‘it is common sense that’.
I’m feeling like my translation is not perfect ahah, but that’s the best I could do. It’s really tricky to translate this little word, which is not really a proper word.
I’m not even sure you would find it in a dictionary.
But if you hear someone say ‘bah’ or ‘ben’, before a sentence, it means ‘it is common sense that…’.
Again, you won’t find this in any normal French course, but it’s native French. And you will hear it in France.
It’s the kind of answer you would get from something you would say that is universal or obvious (or a little stupid).
Tu es là Samedi? : Will you be here Saturday?Bah oui, c’est mon anniversaire! : Yes… It’s my birthday!
Yes in French - Tout à fait / Exactement
Another way you can say OUI in French, without saying OUI is by saying TOUT A FAIT, or EXACTEMENT.
In English, I would translate them both by Exactly.
Be careful, in TOUT A FAIT, there is a liaison, and in this expression, you always have to do it. Because if not, it sounds very weird.
So you have to say TOUT-A FAIT instead of TOUT/ A FAIT.
Squelette s’écrit avec deux T? : Is squelette spelled with two Ts?Tout à fait : Exactly.
Pour pratiquer mon français, je dois parler. C’est ça? : To practice my French, I must speak. Is that it?Exactement. : Exactly.
Yes in French - Parfait, Très bien
And the final ways to say YES in French are: PARFAIT, TRES BIEN.
Depending on the context, you could translate them as alright, or perfectly.
You know, when you are saying ‘Can you do that for me? Alright.’
Parfait, Très bien.
Est ce que tu peux mémoriser ces quelques mots pour moi? : Can you memorise those few words for me?Très bien. : Alright.
PARFAIT ou PARFAITEMENT is something you would hear in a more formal situation. Or if you want to be a little funny.
Tu parles couramment trois langues, et tu en apprends une nouvelle?! : You speak three languages fluently and you are learning a new language?Parfaitement : Perfectly.
And that’s the end of the list. You got what you need for a normal, cool, French conversation!
Let's recap the 10 ways to say yes in French
OUIOUI MERCIOUAIS / MOUAISSIOK / D’ACCORD / ÇA ROULE (check the video from two weeks ago)BIEN SÛR / EVIDEMMENTCARRÉMENTBAH OUITOUT À FAITPARFAIT / TRÈS BIEN / SUPER
You now have plenty of different varieties of yes in your arsenal of French vocabulary. Use them wisely fair knight of language learning and pleeeeeeaaaase use them and speak French!
