# Norwegian: "jo"



## Inglese_chelsea

Hei,

When reading Norwegian I keep seeing the word "jo" in sentences but Norwegians I know cannot explain what it means. So what does it mean?

Takk.


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## hanne

It would be nice with an example or two to be sure of what you mean, but for the kind of "jo" that I think of first, you can usually replace it by "(as you/we/they/... know)".
Does that make sense?


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## vestfoldlilja

Jo, means yes, just as ja, but they are used differently. I’m not really able to explain in well in English, so I’ve written some examples instead. I think in Norwegian we would say that _jo_ is used if the sentence is “nektende”.

Skal du dra eller ikke? Nei, jeg skal ikke dra or jo, jeg skal dra. 

Are you leaving or not? No, I’m not leaving or yes, I’m leaving. 

Skal du dra nå? Nei, jeg skal ikke dra nå or ja, jeg skal dra nå. 

Are you leaving now? No, I’m not leaving now or yes, I am leaving now. 

Kommer du eller ikke? Jo, jeg kommer or nei, jeg kommer ikke. 

Are you coming or not? Yes, I’m coming or no, I’m not coming. 

Kan du komme imorgen? Ja, jeg kan komme imorgen or nei, jeg kan ikke komme imorgen.

Can you come tomorrow? Yes, I can come tomorrow or no, I cannot come tomorrow. 

I hope that maybe cleared things a little.


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## NellyAndrea

Let me try:

Are they coming? Yes, they are coming.
Kommer de? Ja, de kommer.

_They're not coming, are they? Yes, they're coming._
_De kommer ikke, gjør de? Jo, de kommer._


Did he wash the car yesterday? Yes, he did.
Vasket han bilen i går? Ja, det gjorde han.

_He didn't wash the car yesterday, did he? Yes, he did._
_Han vasket ikke bilen i går, gjorde han? Jo, det gjorde han._


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## hanne

Jeg har *jo* tydeligvis tolket spørgsmålet anderledes end I andre...

Staves den variant anderledes på norsk, så det ikke kan være den der menes?

The question is only referring to the _meaning_ of "jo", not the usage, so if your examples cover what Inglese_chelsea means, then the answer is simply "yes".

[edit]"is simply", not "should simply be", that would sound like I'm commenting on the earlier replies, which I didn't intend to, I was just referring to them...[/edit]


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## Södertjej

hanne said:


> the answer should simply be "yes".


Used when there a "no" in the question.


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## kirsitn

Jo has (at least) two different usages in Norwegian. The first one has already been explained above (answering "yes" to a question where the expected answer is "no").

The second usage is as a filler word inside sentences, and that's definitely more difficult to explain. Hanne's explanation ("as you/we know") concerns this usage, but I guess there may be examples where a different translation would be better.


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## amerikansk

Inglese_chelsea said:


> Hei,
> 
> When reading Norwegian I keep seeing the word "jo" in sentences but Norwegians I know cannot explain what it means. So what does it mean?
> 
> Takk.



Most commonly jo is used as yes, but when yes is used as a response to correct an implied negative statement in a question, such as above:

Aren't you coming? *Yes, *I'm coming soon.
Kommer du ikke? *Jo*, jeg kommer snart. 

'Jo' is also used in responses to questions, as a filler word, such as 'well' in English:

Why did you do that? Well, I will tell you.
Hvorfor gjørde du det? Jo, nå skal du høre.

Jo in this sense can be replaced in various sentence with 'well' or 'after all':

Jeg er jo bare en man.  I am, after all, just a man.

Jeg tro at det er riktig i alle falle...


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## hanne

amerikansk said:


> Jeg er jo bare en man.  I am, after all, just a man.


For this example I think that my original suggestion comes closer to the actual meaning of the word "jo". Your version is a common way of saying roughly the same thing, but more literally it means something closer to "As you know, I'm just a man." (and as indicated earlier the "you" is not specified, so it could be we or any other pronoun which makes sense in the context...)


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