9
CONVENTION
You can use
yes
to suggest that you do not believe or agree with what the previous speaker has said, especially when you want to express your annoyance about it. [FEELINGS
] □
10
CONVENTION
You use
yes
to indicate that you had forgotten something and have just remembered it. □
11
CONVENTION
You use
yes
to emphasize and confirm a statement that you are making. [EMPHASIS
] □
12
CONVENTION
You say
yes and no
in reply to a question when you cannot give a definite answer, because in some ways the answer is yes and in other ways the answer is no. [VAGUENESS
] □
1
Don't say 'yes' if you want to agree with a negative question. For example, if someone says ‘Aren’t you going out this evening?’, say ‘No
, I'm not’. Don’t say ‘
2
Similarly, don't say 'yes' if you want to agree with a negative statement. For example, if someone says ‘He doesn’t want to come’, say ‘No
, he doesn't’. Don’t say ‘
ye s-man (yes-men ) N‑COUNT If you describe a man as a yes-man , you dislike the fact that he seems always to agree with people who have authority over him, in order to gain favour. [DISAPPROVAL ]
yes|ter|day ◆◆◆ /je stə r de I , -di/ (yesterdays )
1
ADV
You use
yesterday
to refer to the day before today. □
2
N‑UNCOUNT
You can refer to the past, especially the recent past, as
yesterday
. □
yes|ter|year
/je
stə
r
j
I
ə
r
/ N‑UNCOUNT
You use
yesteryear
to refer to the past, often a period in the past with a set of values or a way of life that no longer exists. [LITERARY
] □
yet ◆◆◆ /je t/
1
ADV
[ADV
with v] You use
yet
in negative statements to indicate that something has not happened up to the present time, although it probably will happen. You can also use
yet
in questions to ask if something has happened up to the present time. In British English the simple past tense is not normally used with this meaning of 'yet'. □
2
ADV
[ADV
with v] You use
yet
with a negative statement when you are talking about the past, to report something that was not the case then, although it became the case later. □
3
ADV
[ADV
with v] If you say that something should not or cannot be done
yet
, you mean that it should not or cannot be done now, although it will have to be done at a later time. □