When writing the difference of yea vs. Yeah it is also important to understand the meaning of these expressions and where they originated to help tell the difference. It is also important to include yay into the mix of yea vs. Yeah because of the way it is also mixed up with the two words in print and publications.
This is driving me crazy. I just got an email with the subject, “Yeah a Birthday Baby is Born”. I’m not sure the sender (who is not known for her grammatical prowess) meant to sound as sarcastic as the teenagers we teach, but to someone who knows the difference between “yeah”, “yea” and “yay”, she did. And just what is the difference? If you don’t know, you’re certainly not alone.
Even Spell Check doesn’t know the difference. It’s a trivial thing, and most people don’t care.
This is not a celebration word. This isn’t something you’d say when a friend has a new grandbaby born on her birthday (as the email I received told me). It means “yes” or “whatever.” Sometimes we even use it with 'so' to make it even more casual (or obnoxious), “Yeah, so, I was bored.” Big freakin’ deal. “Yea” Hey, everyone, let’s vote. Do you vote yea or nay?
“Yea” sounds like may, hay or even yay (which we’ll get to in a minute), but it means an old-fashioned “yes.” It is the oldest of the collection and was the root of all versions of yes words today. “Yeah”, which means yes, definitely derived from “yea”, which also means a more formal yes, but then so did an exclamation of excitement that is almost never used correctly. We’re finally using “yay” correctly!
Ironically as I type this, Microsoft Word is trying to correct me. It doesn’t think that “yay” is a word. Apparently I should use “yap” instead, but I won’t. I think we all know Word isn’t right all the time.
If you’re excited, “yay” is the word to correctly use according to what we consider “proper” English. “Yea” gives you a vote and “yeah” is just agreeing – only “Yay!” can really convey true enthusiasm.
My challenge to you: Pay attention to just how often these words are mixed up, flipped around and blatantly misused. At the same time, you might try to avoid misusing them yourself. Yeah and yea are finally sorted out! Rebecca is a full-time everything.
She teaches English and reading to her much loved, if challenging, high school students during the day and is a freelance education writer in the evenings. With almost ten years in the classroom and advanced degrees in business and information science, Rebecca specializes in materials that inform, educate and entertain. Rebecca indulges herself by pretending to have spare time and writing about the ups and downs of being a freelancing mama whenever she gets a chance. Read more posts from.
53 Comments. It’s funny that you addressed this because this has been one of my growing pet peeves over the last few months.
Except, my beef is with the “word” yay. I use yeah and yea a lot, but I use yea to mean “Yes!” As in, “Yea! I got paid today!” (Yes! I got paid today!) Yeah is my sarcastic, “yeah, but” kind of word. As in, “Yeah, so I didn’t get paid today after all.” (Yes, so, the guy’s a jerk for saying I was going to get paid and he didn’t come through.”) Yay drives me nuts, because it’s not yes. It’s a sound. The way you put it though, I might reconsider my usage.
I still don’t like yay, but it does make some sense that yea is more formal than yay, which I’m not striving for when I use these words. I’ve never seen them used interchangeably (and intentionally) from anyone who knows better. They’re different words. The fact that some people use one incorrectly doesn’t mean they’re now the same. Also, it’s less that she’s upset and more that I hire her to cover issues like this for writers who are new and don’t know any better. We get plenty of ESL folks here looking to improve their English writing skills, and these little grammatical mistakes are some of the things that stand out when a prospect reviews those writers’ samples.
As King said above, I use “yeah” (which I would pronounce y – short ‘a’ as in “yap”) as a positive exclamation, as in “Oh Yeah!” ( Saying “Oh Yay-uh” just sounds too affected to me.) But by itself “yeah” doesn’t carry the same positive meaning. I tend to agree with Microsoft word that “Yay” isn’t a word but, as the article indicates, it might be the best to use as a positive exclamation by itself, without the “Oh.” I would not use any of these in standard writing, but I found this article interesting because I was trying to find the best word to use on Facebook! Thank you so much for this helpful info. For years I’ve been worried that I was using these words incorrectly, or rather, misspelling the word I intended to write (it turns out I wasn’t.) now I have the confidence to help others sort out this confusion. For that, I thank you. – Addison Draper p.s. – if you haven’t done so already would you write about punctuation and where it belongs in relation to quote marks and/or parentheses?
If you do I promise to always use “yeah, yea and yay” correctly from now on (but what about, “ya”? Ps – thank you for being a teacher! Anyone who can read this should go out today and thank a teacher just for being a teacher. And another thingif I have more to say, should it be “p.s.s.
Hi Addison, Rebecca no longer writes for the blog, but I’ll pass your kind words to her. “Ya” is slang for “you.” So you might say “I’ll see ya later,” instead of “I’ll see you later.” It’s not directly interchangeable with the others here.
And it’s pronunciation would rhyme with “uh.” Punctuation in relation to quotation marks depends on where you live and write. For example, we put punctuation inside quotes generally (like I did in the previous paragraph). In UK English, the rules are different. Here’s a resource that goes over some basic rules on that for you: And it would be p.p.s. Rather than p.s.s.