# ano



## Encolpius

In Czech and Slovak ano means yes. Yes is Tak in Polish, but I found some expressions with ano in Polish, too. Is ano in Polish just old-fashioned or means something else? Can you give some examples when to use ano?


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## Trauer

"Ano" nowadays is sth like "yes" or "sure" or "exactly" or "true" or even "nope", but used only in colloquial language and with a little bit negative flavour in it, like mostly (but not always) when talking about some negative stuff  
When for example two friends are talking and one says "To życie nie ma sensu" ("This life has no sense") and the other agrees: "Ano..." or "Ano, nie ma..." ("Nope"/"True true" or "Nope, it hasn't"/"True, it hasn't").

It's like saying "it's obvious".


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## ><FISH'>

I am guessing that the Polish "no" is derived from this as well?

Incidentally, "Ano" in English is "I know", which is also an agreement.


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## BezierCurve

> I am guessing that the Polish "no" is derived from this as well?


 
I believe so. And even that it is hard to find it in any book for learning Polish, "no" (meaning "tak") is widespread in colloquial speech.


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## arturolczykowski

In my exerience "no" can be used  alone as "yes", but "ano" seems to need something more, like in this example: "To zycie nie ma sensu", "Ano nie ma"......



Maybe it's only me but I wouldn never answer just "ano"....


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## majlo

I agree with arturolczykowski.


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## Encolpius

Interesting. and is it possible to use *ano *and *tak *close together?


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## majlo

Yes, I can imagine a context in which _ano _and _tak _could be used one after another. For example:

_- Dzisiaj na Polsacie puszczają "Die Hard". Fajnie, bo dawno nie oglądałem Sylvestra Stallone'a.
- Ale Stallone nie grał w "Die Hard".
- Ano tak! Zapomniałem._

Though, I'm not sure whether it's a correct usage.

EDIT:

By the way, related matter: http://poradnia.pwn.pl/lista.php?id=10562

EDIT #2:

By the way: http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6374/71723926.png


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## Trauer

majlo said:


> _- Dzisiaj na Polsacie puszczają "Die Hard". Fajnie, bo dawno nie oglądałem Sylvestra Stallone'a.
> - Ale Stallone nie grał w "Die Hard".
> - Ano tak! Zapomniałem._



Shouldn't there be "A, no tak!" instead of "Ano tak!"?


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## Trauer

arturolczykowski said:


> Maybe it's only me but I wouldn never answer just "ano"....



I use it quite often alone, but perhaps it's just me


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## arturolczykowski

> Shouldn't there be "A, no tak!" instead of "Ano tak!"?



Check the first link majlo provided.


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## majlo

arturolczykowski said:


> Check the first link majlo provided.



Exactly.


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## ajanna

My feeling is that "no" is very colloquial and unpolite (unless used when talking to close friends), but is quite common esp. amongst uneducated people; whereas "ano" is rarely used (eg I would use it sometimes but only when joking with my friends, since it's not a part of my everyday language register)


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## arturolczykowski

It is colloquial, but I don't think it's unpolite.... It might be unpolite depending on context and voice intonation, but imho in majority of its usages is just neutral.... btw I am not uneducated person and I still use  "no" and my regional "jo"


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## Trauer

My teachers at school taught me that saying "no" instead of "tak" is very unpolite...


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## Encolpius

Trauer said:


> My teachers at school taught me that saying "no" instead of "tak" is very unpolite...



Very interesting comments. This *no* (yes) exists also in Hungarian and it works the same way. We also were taught at school not to use it, because it is impolite. Czechs use it as well, they do not find it impolite.


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## arturolczykowski

So if you asked me "Could you lend me 100 pounds?" and I'd answer "no" (in Polish) you'd take it for unpolite answer?


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## Trauer

arturolczykowski said:


> So if you asked me "Could you lend me 100 pounds?" and I'd answer "no" (in Polish) you'd take it for unpolite answer?



I wouldn't, but I guess my former teachers would


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## ajanna

That explains everything lol. I'm a language teacher, translator and journalist, and I guess, that's why I'm being so fixed on language correctness


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## NotNow

BTW the word _impolite _is much more common than _unpolite_.  _Unpolite_ sounds a bit awkward.  I doubt that a native speaker would use it.

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=26962


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## majlo

ajanna said:


> That explains everything lol. I'm a language teacher, translator and journalist, and I guess, that's why I'm being so fixed on language correctness



And you regard "lol" as one of its features?


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## ajanna

lol - yes, you're right


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## majlo

As much as I'm glad that I'm right, this kind of language is not permitted on these forums.


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## bibax

> Very interesting comments. This no (yes) exists also in Hungarian and it works the same way. We also were taught at school not to use it, because it is impolite. Czechs use it as well, they do not find it impolite.


In Czech no istead of ano (yes) is colloquial and impolite when you use it talking with an authority. For example:

- Napsal sis úkoly? Nooo.
- Vyčistil sis zuby? Nooooo.
- Umyl sis uši? Noooooooooo.

It seems that some teenagers know only _nooo_, _joooo_ and _dyť joooo_ (= vždyť ano) when talking to their parents.

There is also "no" which means exactly the same as German "na" (no konečně! = na endlich!).


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## BezierCurve

> There is also "no" which means exactly the same as German "na" (no konečně! = na endlich!).


 
There's one in Polish too, used to emphasise following expressions:

No właśnie! = Exactly!/That's right!
No nie! = Oh no!

etc.


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## Ben Jamin

Trauer said:


> "Ano" nowadays is sth like "yes" or "sure" or "exactly" or "true" or even "nope", but used only in colloquial language and with a little bit negative flavour in it, like mostly (but not always) when talking about some negative stuff
> When for example two friends are talking and one says "To życie nie ma sensu" ("This life has no sense") and the other agrees: "Ano..." or "Ano, nie ma..." ("Nope"/"True true" or "Nope, it hasn't"/"True, it hasn't").
> 
> It's like saying "it's obvious".


 I would say that it means "I agree with you".


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## jmng

Uwaga ! 

Ano means asshole in Spanish so I'm having fun here


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## Ben Jamin

bibax said:


> In Czech no istead of ano (yes) is colloquial and impolite when you use it talking with an authority. For example:
> 
> - Napsal sis úkoly? Nooo.
> - Vyčistil sis zuby? Nooooo.
> - Umyl sis uši? Noooooooooo.
> 
> It seems that some teenagers know only _nooo_, _joooo_ and _dyť joooo_ (= vždyť ano) when talking to their parents.
> 
> There is also "no" which means exactly the same as German "na" (no konečně! = na endlich!).


It is interesting that "no" occurs in Polish, Czech and Hungarian, and is so close to German "na". It looks like so called (in English, yes!) "Sprachforbund" (a cluster of languages not necessarily closely related, but with some common features in grammar or vocabulary). Another example is the Balkan Sprachforbund, where many languages have no infinitive or do not use it much (Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, partly Serbian).


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## ryba

Technically, _ano_ means 'yes' but, it has an additional nuance of presenting what follows as related to or a consequence of what the other person's said, it's emphatic.

That's why "Ano." may mean 'yeah, that's it, buddy'. Just like Trauer pointed out ( #*2*), it often has a nuance of resignation (from calm, stoic acceptance, accepting things like they are to deep sadness, depending on the context and intonation).

That's also why "Ano tak." sounds so natural in conversational language.

This makes it quite synonymous to _no_ but _no,_ apart from being more common, is more polyvalent. "No tak" can be used instead of "Ano tak" and the meaning stays the same if you use a similar word stress pattern. "No tak", however can be followed by objection ("No tak, ale ..."), whereas "Ano tak" cannot if it's not followed by a pause, a moment of silence between it and the expression of objection. I think it's like that because _ano_ is more emphatic and more strongly associated with the sense of affirmation than _no_ which is more widely used and has a zillion of acceptations that make a native speaker wonder how to define it.

As a curiosity, a friend of my maternal grandparents' who was Polish  from Kałusz in Western Ukraine like them used to say "Ano ta pewno, że  tak" meaning 'Of course, naturally'  = modern general colloquial Polish  "(No) pewnie, że tak", for example.



jmng said:


> Uwaga !
> 
> Ano means asshole in Spanish so I'm having fun here



Hahah, well, they are homographs but they are not homophones most of the time. Spanish _ano_ is stressed on the first syllable /ˡano/, whereas in Polish _ano_ it is the second syllable that gets stressed /aˡno/. When used with other words or expressions, it's usually unstressed /ano/.

A: ???
B: Jak nie podłączyłaś żelazka to się nie dziw, że nie działa.
A: Ano tak. Racja. (unstressed, ano ˡtak)

A: Nie wiem.
B: Jak to nie wiesz?! Mówiłaś, że się dowiesz!!!
A: Ano nie wiem, a co, takie to pilne? Jak chcesz, to zapytam rodziców. (unstressed, ano ˡnie wiem)

A slight stress shift is possible:

Ano racja. Zapomniałem. (,ano ˡracja, secondary stress on "ano")

However, it is equally normal to say ano ˡracja with "ano" unstressed and there is a slight difference between the two:

1) ,Ano ˡracja >>> As "ano" has the slight nuance of introducing consequence I mentioned above, you put emphasis on the process of understanding that what what the other person has just said is true or on the fact that you accept it. The "a" sound often gets prolonged (,aaano ˡracja).

2) Ano ˡracja >>> Emphasis put on the fact that the other person is right.

Take care and feel free to comment (or correct my English).


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## robin74

ryba said:


> whereas in Polish _ano_ it is the second syllable that gets stressed /aˡno/.


That's not right. It's stressed exactly the same in Polish and in Spanish, *a*no.


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## ryba

robin74 said:


> That's not right. It's stressed exactly the same in Polish and in Spanish, *a*no.



When I say mentally "Ano ano" (I've only heard this double _Ano_ from other pople, never actually said that), it may, but in my idiolect it is like I said and, as far as I've heard, people around me (Turek, eastern Wielkopolska and Poznań) stress the _-no_ syllable too and I am pretty sure this is the original pronounciation. If you or people in Warsaw dialect always stress the _a-_ syllable, then it is nothing more than a stress shift that must have originated by analogy to the habitual stressing pattern for two-syllable words as, in fact, polysyllabic words stressed on the last syllable are very uncommon in Polish.

Look, if /a'no/ were not the classic pronounciation, how would you explain the suggestion that has been made in this very thread that _no_ may have originated from _ano_ or at least, both must have common origins? No one has tried to deny _no_'s being related etymologically to _ano_ so far. How would anyone consider _ano_' s transforming into _no_ possible if _a_ were the stressed vowel?


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## robin74

I don't know. But I was born in the north, spend many years in the south and now I've been living in Warsaw for about 12 years and nowhere did I hear anyone who would pronounce this word as a*no*. I find such pronunciation to be non-standard and highly unusual.


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## BezierCurve

I think many people do that subconsiously (ie. stress the second syllable: [a'no!]) when they agree with something that has just occurred to them shortly before and it is used as a standalone interjection:

A: Byłeś w sklepie?
B: Byłem.
A: Widziałeś nową ekspedientkę?
B: [a'no]! Faktycznie, była tam jakaś nowa dziewczyna.

Since the Czech _ano _is definitely stressed on the first syllable, I think it is hard to find the "original" pronunciation, but the shift that Ryba was talking about could have occurred due to the generally weaker stress in Polish.

EDIT: It could be also that speakers want to express it through "A, no!", wich works here just like "A, tak!", hence the stress on the "no" part. My second thought.


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## Tsume0

Tak - yes
No - very informal "yes"... NEVER use it, it's very impolite.
Ano - informal "yes", but you can use, when you are talking with friends, I use it very often.


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## robin74

Tsume0 said:


> No - very informal "yes"... NEVER use it, it's very impolite.


I can't agree. It's informal but I wouldn't say it's impolite.


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## Tsume0

robin74 said:


> I can't agree. It's informal but I wouldn't say it's impolite.



I would never say "no" - for me it's very impolite.


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## majlo

_No is _impolite? Any learners of Polish, please, don't pay attention to it. In no way is it impolite.


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## ryba

Thanks a lot, robin74 and BezierCurve!

All this made me think a lot and I soon realized I may have gone in the wrong direction with my overgeneralization concerning the "original" stress.



Tsume0 said:


> No - very informal "yes"... NEVER use it, it's very impolite.



Never say never, Tsume0. I don't agree at all. _No_ is in no way impolite unless:

1) used out of its natural context, i.e. informal colloquial speech (but this applies to everything, not only to _no_!)
2) said in a markedly impolite way (same as above).

In fact, _no_ sounds very polite D) in most of the cases (in its acceptions that are synonymous with 'tak' as well as in those that are not) as it's mostly used to show interest in what the other person's just said (unless the case we deal with is 2), obviously) and often seems just irreplacable.

Imagine a group of friends. One is relating some funny/interesting event to the rest or maybe they're just bringing back old memories when someone off the group who also has witnessed what they're talking about exlaims "Nooooooooo, to było dobre!!!!" or "Nooooooooo, dokładnie!!!!". By "Nooooooooooo" he means 'Tak', that's for sure, but do you think "Taaaaaaaaaak" would work without sounding somewhat cheesy ?


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