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I have been watching a French TV series (Les Témoins / Witnesses) with English subtitles.

In one episode I was surprised to hear the main character, a female cop, clearly say "Yes!" (more to herself than the other person) during a phone conversation in which she obtained crucial information about a criminal she was pursuing. Then, after the call ended, she whispered more than spoke "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to herself. Her mood was a mix of relief, excitement, triumph and satisfaction.

This was the only occasion in the entire series that I noticed anyone using English, and I have never personally heard "yes" used in any French conversation. Was this an just an anomaly, or is "yes" now being used in spoken French? If so:

  • If it is used at all, is it only ever used as an exclamation, and never in reply to a question?
  • In what circumstances would its use be generally accepted and understood?
  • How common and widespread is its use?

For the exact context, the phone conversation I am referring to is in Series 2, Episode 6 of Les Témoins between about 49:25 and 49:40.

skomisa
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  • I notice that the popular French YouTuber Cyprien says it a lot. – Luke Sawczak Oct 25 '18 at 02:04
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    @LukeSawczak I don't know if it is relevant but here is Ngram result that depicts an increasing trend of using yes in French. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=yes&year_start=1800&year_end=2020&corpus=19&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cyes%3B%2Cc0 – Dimitris Oct 25 '18 at 07:39
  • Yes in French ? Ha! You mean *Yaissssssss!* ;-) At the moment you realize, understand, learn that something important for you is sucessfull / correct / right / true. – MC68020 Oct 25 '18 at 07:43

2 Answers2

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I will answer with a French point of view, I don't know how it is for French speakers outside of France.

We do use Yes as an exclamation, when something cool happened to us / when we won something as you pointed out in your question.
It can also be used as a reply, when something "cool" happened to one of your friend, example:

- Je pars en vacances en Amérique la semaine prochaine.
- Ha yes ! profite bien !

We sometimes use it to replace oui, for example:

- Est-ce que tu pourrais m'envoyer le lien de la vidéo de la dernière fois ?
- Yes ! Je te fais ça tout de suite !

I couldn't tell how often we use Yes, the only thing I can tell you is that we don't use it in really formal situations.

I guess we use it only to sound "cooler" :)

jlliagre
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Flying_whale
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    As sad as I feel about it, you are perfectly right. I really noticed this trend was happening when a graphic novel I was reading, and not actually a bad one, made use of this type of exclamation. From then, there was no going back to my happy unknowing state. +1 – Pas un clue Oct 25 '18 at 12:35
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    Something I forgot to ask is whether "yes" is less likely to be used by older people. Is that the case? – skomisa Oct 26 '18 at 15:51
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    @skomisa I depends which older person you're talking about. I would guess the proportion of them using it is much lower, but I have heard people in their sixties make occasional use of it. – Pas un clue Oct 27 '18 at 16:02
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    In Quebec, we have the base use (something cool happening to yourself), but not the other ones. – Circeus Oct 29 '18 at 20:47
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    In Belgium this is also quite common among the younger generations. My 6 years old kid uses it although she has no knowledge of English – Laurent S. Nov 16 '18 at 09:56
  • @LaurentS. Or perhaps: she has no knowledge that she has knowledge of English (assuming that "yes" has not risen to the level of being considered a French word). – skomisa Nov 20 '18 at 06:33
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Teenagers and young adults use ’yes !’ when they succeed in doing something, when something great happens to them.

FCA69
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