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?)

as mltm´s example suggests, "ya" might suggest surprise among other things.

but we don´t use "Ya Allah" to express surprise.

It is "Hay allah!" instead. it is close to "Aman Allahým"= "Oh my God"

The difference between "Aman Allahým" and "Hay Allah" is that

"Hay allah" is used especially when somebody gets  somewhat disappointed or frustrated.

"Hay Allah" and "Aman Allahým" does not really reflect a religious concern and widely used by 

all native speakers.

"Ya Allah" is used in Turkish as well, but only before you start to do something requiring a lot of physical effort. For instance when you are going to carry a very heavy luggage. But this expression reflects a religious concern and only older and religious people use this phrase.

Thank you.

when im talking (arabic ) i use yani like crazy loooooooooooool

i feel like i cnat start a sentence without it lol, sometimes i say it like 3 times after each other

"yani what do u mean yani? yani waht do u want?"

looooooooooooooooooooool

and ya, i almost use it as a question suffix, dunno why, omg i just figured it out, i use it like mu and ma in syrian, after the question

oh and for some reason i always say ya after uffffffffff , no idea why!!!!! I just heard ppl saying it like that so i did too

or when im annoyed or smthg

Words with no meaning, i hate trying to explain them especially like in egypt the word ba2a

and 5las , how the hell am i supposed to transalte those? they have NO meaning!!

  Ba2a is hadi in Turkish...same usage

And 5las..mmm i dont know lol

But i promise i will ask my teacher and tell you

Ps: Sry hedef...i havent seen your question, but doudi gave the answer

We use Ya also like this like mertatasoy said

"Ya Allah" is used in Turkish as well, but only before you start to do something requiring a lot of physical effort. For instance when you are going to carry a very heavy luggage. But this expression reflects a religious concern and only older and religious people use this phrase

And also as hadar said

"did u know he had an accident?"

"ya allah seriously?"

But its not for expressing surprise its more for showing thimpathy with the event in that case

Ýn another case it can be to show surprise

´Ya´ means ´or´

´Yani´ meanse ´so´

When someone says something like:

´Git!´ (lol, I´m only cursing xD)

It means : ´Get the hll out´

When someone says :

´Git yaaa!´

It means : ´Get the hell out or something!´

Too bad it doesn´t translate correctly in English

(It does in my native language)

As for Yani :

Yani does have a meaning,

(Yani = so )

as in saying :

I´m coming, so you´re coming too

Geliyorum, yani sende geliyorsun

Get it?

i just noticed that in lebanon we use "ya" for "either/or".

we say for example " ya abyad ya aswad" (either white or black)

it is not arabic so it must be inherited from the ottomans.

As for "yani", hadar , canli, doudi , explained it well. it is the verb "mean/meaning" it is arabic.

 yani means = That is to say

 Yes and also we add ´da´ sometimes to give the meaning of

Ya da , ya da..either this or this

what you say is basically incorrect.

ya sometimes mean "or" among million of other things, but not here.

yani means "I mean" or "that is to say", but this is not the single meaning.

I think we should avoid simplification when things are not actually that simple.

especially for ya, I think an explanation of "ya" should take at least 3 pages or something,

you cannot just tell everything about it in one example and moreover your example is not correct.

Ý knew we have this some where

You may like to check those threads about ya

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_16723

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_10070

OMG!!! ba2a is like hadi???

i thoguht hadi was smthg like, hurry, or quick or common, something of that sort

are u sure??

like when i say ana ba2a ummm (for example) mesh haru7

hadi would be used in the translation of that sentence in turkish?

 Nooo, its like

Yalla ba2a ta2ala...hadi gel

Yalla ba2a neruh...hadi gidelim 

 I think 5las would be like "enough!" "stop it!"... no?

and if ba2a = hadi... so is it also yalla?

as i understood hadi=yalla

 Mmmm, i find it hard to explain  

Well, it can be and also it cant be

Meaning

5las..can be enough

When someone nagging or something and you say

5alas...5elesna....means enough, we´ve finished

Or you can just use 5alas ! Enough! expressing how firm you are as you are not going to add or allow more talking .

But also when you say

Ana meshit 5alas...it means ..i´ve already left

So here 5alas means already.

The original meaning of 5alas comes from 5eles...means finished

As for ba2a and yalla... we use them together sometimes

Like yalla ba2a

But Yalla means come..it doesnt mean ba2a

So also it doent mean hadi

We use ba2a to urge someone to do something

As in saying

Hadi gel !

Ýts like... Come´onnnnn..so its ta2ala ba2a ,or can be yallay ta2ala ba2a

Of course the above is the Egyptian arabic ´daily speak´..not related much to formal arabic .

Btw, is Hebrew contains many words as in Arabic ?

Ý have heard many words similar but  you use kh instead of h that we use in the arabic word

Right ? 

um we use H and Kh in hebrew...

and yalla is just like ummm... "hurry!" "comeonnnn!".. thats how we use it in Hebrew..

Yes we have many words that were taken from Arabic, some of them with the same meaning as in Arabic (for ex: halas, yalla) and some with different meanings (for ex: koosemek, ahusharmouta)...

koosemek we use like "shit!" "fuck!" when something bad or annoying happenes...

and "ahusharmouta" we use to say something like "soooooo",  like: "this girl is beautiful ahusharmouta!" (this girl is sooooo beautiful)

Needless to say that you should be careful using those 2 words in arabic

Mmmm, we do use yalla like that too.

Ý guess it can be only explained with examples, its hard that you say exactly what would it mean.

You can say , Yalla alone and it means come if its in a stiuation you are asking someone to come.

Yalla, open the TV...come on open the TV

And so on.

 And it hasnt a nice meaning in Arabic for sure

Hahaha thanks for the explanation CANLÝ

Yes ýts so strange that ýf ý say ýt to an Arab guy he wýll be angry cuz ýn Hebrew the meanýngs are totally dýfferent

OH canlý ýf Yalla ýs "come", what about Taal?

 Yalla means "come on" and "Taal" means "come here" as far as i know

shukran!

teþekkürler!

toda!

thanks!

^^

Affan!

bi þey deðil!

welcome!

Ý never gave it that much thought before but seems that word isnt that easy as it seems to be

Ok Ta2al is come...that is verb and its meaning doesnt change by situations or whatever

But Yalla is much more different

Ýt depends on the situation it used in.

For example, if you are going out with the family and all of them are ready but you still have some touches to do

They they call at you...yalla ...here it means hurry...and usually they would say..Yalla ba2a..offff !

Ýf you are down town making some shopping with friends, and you have stopped at store for a bit long...then they call at you ...yalla..here means come..and again they would use ba2a with it.

Ýf you ask your friend, brother/sis to open TV, and s/he didnt and was talking..so you shout at her...Yalla...that means..come onnnnn

But if you are sitting with nothing to do and a friend out of the blue said ..yalla !

You wouldnt understand what s/he means.

Kept saying Yalla again...

So you would go to him saying...ok i came..what do you want ?!

Yalla what ?!

So here...first thing you would think of that yalla means come and that what would you do then you ask for more explanation.

So yalla worked as meaning come.

Im cracking up here, loooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!

ahusharmouta!! omg , actually i guess sje means it 2 words ahuh and then the rest, ahuh is like here there is a... loooooooooooooooool koosemek, i didnt unerstand it in the beggining!!!!

OMG im laughing crazy!!!

Sorry, but this thread is definitely out of joint. = Üzgünüm fakat bu baþlýktaki tartýþma tamamýyla zývanadan çýkmýþ.