I´m having the worst time understanding "ya" and "yani" in conversation, even though it seems like people use them ALL THE TIME. When I´ve asked, people tell me that they don´t really mean anything and not to worry about it, but obviously they must at least add an inflection to a sentence or they wouldn´t exist.

My vague impression is that "ya" adds emphasis to a short, casual utterance, so "Çok yorgunum ya" would kind of mean "Man, I´m sooo tired" rather than just "I am very tired." Is that more or less right?

As for yani... I have no idea. Help?

 As i understand,

Yani is a word that we use to say that, the next sentence will explain more about the one we already said.

When you say something not clear, or you feel its very much academic, and you want to add more detail that will explain same topic more is a lighter way...so you say ...Yani and then re-explaining in another way.

That would pretty directly translate to "I mean..." in English, which makes a lot of sense. Thanks so much!

we use ya when are surprised by or slightly annoyed by something.

yorgunum ya=you are whining about being tired

ya öyle mi? = aah really? (you are surprised or shocked)

TutorTurkish

Istanbul

as CANLI says people use "yani" to paraphrase what they´ve just said or to explain things further.  But there are mant other uses I can not really explain.

This is something I think only experts can really give an answer. 

For instance, in these sentences it is not actually for further explanation.

"Bu kadar saygýsýzlýk da yapýlmaz yani."

"Ne olurdu gelseydin yani."

"ya" is even more complicated, although what aliebling said is totally correct.

I have just checked the dictionary and there are 10 different uses of this word and the dictionary does not really explain but just provides some examples.

http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/SozBul.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF4376734BED947CDE&Kelime=ya

This feels kind of weird, because as a native speaker I have never really realized that Turkish people use these words so frequently and that it is really difficult to explain what they mean or what purpose they serve to.

Hope somebody can help and I think that´s the sort of thing you can never find in any grammar books and stuff. 

 Actually Yani is also Egyptian word ´Egyptian Arabic one´ and same as ya too and the way we use them are same.

But here im having a question

Ý remember in a previous discussion ,some of the teachers here said that we cant form a question without the question tool

For example

Ýn English i can say,

You are  coming with me, yes ?

And it will be very much understandable

But in Turkish we cant say

Benimle geliyorsun, evet ´ya´?

Here

http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/SozBul.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF4376734BED947CDE&Kelime=ya

Ýt says

Sen geldin, ya Ahmet?

So that means we can form it that way or its just informal way of speak ?

"ya" in this sentence means "how about?"

so it translates as "You came, (but) how about Ahmet?"

In written Turkish there is always an element which turns the sentence into a question.

In spoken Turkish, sometimes people turn sentences into a question by changing the intonation. This is not correct though very common.

 Yani is anarabic word = يعني. But its pronounced slietly different in arabic because in English and Turkish there is no letter for (ع which is replaced by (a) in both languages.

Ya is also used in arabic but i´m not quite sure when. it is sometimes used in the meaning of "realy?" but i don´t know if it does so in Turkish.

In Hebrew we also use "yaani" (yani in turkish) as "I mean" "So, u mean...."

"are u going tomorrow yaani?"

"so u mean u r going tomorrow?"

"but, yaani..."

"but, i mean..."

About "ya" I dont really understand :S can someone explain some more?

In Hebrew I only use it when i´m gonna swear someone(ya #@!^) or in  "ya allah":

"did u know he had an accident?"

"ya allah seriously?"

"seriously? ya allah!..."

like something is surprising u or makes u angry :S

 Among the countless usages of "ya" in turkish, it´s used for this "really" meaning as well. For example, a conversation may go on like this:

- Bugün pazar çok kalabalýktý. (today the bazaar was very crowdy.)

- Ya?! (was it? /really?)