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"No" as a filler word | ||
Tags: Filler Words | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 1 of 24 06 August 2008 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to know if it happens to other languages speakers that they use "no" as a filler word.
Many of those who I know, in colloquial speach, use to start phrases with "no". For example you say: "A is B" and get "No, well, I agree". ("А это Б" - "Не, ну да") "We need (X) for (Y)" "No, of course we do". ("Для Х нужно Y" - "Не, конечно нужно"), "No, you're right" (Нет, ты прав) I guess this came from a habbit to say "no, I'm not arguing, you're right", or "but wait", "no, wait, i mean..." This often leads you to get mixed signals: - So do you play paintball with us on weekend? - No (you get this as a rejection and think: so pity), of course I will. or a dialogue that took place between me and my father: - Dad, you know many people use to start saying with "no" (he nods), and you too, but it's much better to start phrase with "yes, but". - No, of course I agree. - You've just said "no" before "I agree". - Really?! Did I? I've heard a similar thing from Italians: they insert unnecessary "no" into speech. Does the same thing take place in other languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sajro Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5996 days ago 129 posts - 131 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 24 06 August 2008 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, but in English, TOO many people say "like" or "totally" as fillers. I hate it.
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| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7015 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 24 06 August 2008 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
This can get quite confusing in Gibraltar, especially when you affirm then deny in the same sentence, e.g. ¿Vamos al cine? = Are we going to the cinema? Si, no = Yes (the no is used to emphasise the affirmation) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 4 of 24 06 August 2008 at 11:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Hehe. It reminded me of another feature of my language: да (da) means "yes", but also is used as a union "and"/"but". It's normal to say "Да ты где?" "But where are you?" But when used near negation, it might sound strange, for example someone may reply to a question: "Да нет" (word-by-word "yes no", actual meaning "but no"), or even "Да нет наверное" (word-by-word "yes no maybe", actual meaning "well, probably not") :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy_Liu Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong leibby.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6786 days ago 255 posts - 257 votes Speaks: Mandarin, Cantonese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 5 of 24 09 August 2008 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know what the Chinese are speaking on the streets elsewhere, but in my city, young people often say 冇呀 "nothing/nothing special/nothing matters/nope", etc, when their friends ask "how are things?/what's the matter with you?". Very often, the ones who ask are curious about what their friends are doing, and very often, they REALLY are doing something new/special, but then they kind of give this kind of response to make an excuse, for example.
Very often, when they say nothing matters, there must be something going on. So, they may say: 冇呀, but I ate a lot last night in a restaurant/I found a new job/I passed an exam/I've just been to _____(a scenery spot)/my iPod is broken, etc. There are more instances like that than nothing really happened at all. A good equivalent is 沒什麼 in Mandarin. Literally, this expression is often intended to make you (and your friends) feel better, when they may worry too much about your life. So, I think it's used most honestly when the person looks a bit sick/has his/her finger cut/stumbles and falls down, etc. In this sense, when I think more deeply, it seems I personally mix up yes and no almost all the time in every language I know. For me, there have been much more instances where I use yes and no for more complicated pragmatic meanings than simple yes-no questions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6493 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 6 of 24 13 August 2008 at 12:21am | IP Logged | ||
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We also use to say "nothing/doesn't matter" as a response to "how are you doing?" Some people recently started asking "how's your nothing?" :)
I've listened to Spanish radio today, and it was funny to notice this: one man was saying "No, sí", "No, claro!" 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6372 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 24 13 August 2008 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
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My favourite.How are you? Nah yeh, I'm pretty good thanks.
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| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5945 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 8 of 24 03 September 2008 at 9:00am | IP Logged | ||
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In Brussels, an expression you may hear sometimes is "NON, peut-être !?" which may sound like a surprised question but really means "oui, bien-sûr !", as in "the opposite would be unthinkable". I really love that expression.
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