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In English we have many ways to respond to a question or statement. What are some informal ways to do this in Russian other than да or нет?

Examples: “Yep”, “Nope” “Yea”, “Nah” “Yay”, “Nay” (old English)

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Means "Yes": Да. Ага. Угу. Аха. Так. Окей. Хорошо. Отлично. Так и быть. Согласен. Конечно! Бесспорно.

Means "No": Нет. Не. Неа. Нетушки. Не пойдёт. Не согласен. Против. Ни за что. "Ага, конечно!" "Не дождётесь!" "Дудки!" Забудь об этом! Нёу. Отнюдь! Увы.

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    нетушки is good
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Dec 6, 2017 at 21:50
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    is нетушки informal?
    – Trey
    Dec 6, 2017 at 23:25
  • yes it is, it's mostly used for refusal and usually being said in conversation between good acquaintances because it kind of softens the refusal
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Dec 7, 2017 at 8:20
  • Excellent set of examples! If you could match the translations with the closest usage/context it would be very helpful. For example, which is most like “Yep”?
    – TomSchober
    Dec 14, 2017 at 17:07
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"Да" can be replaced with "Ага" or "Угу", or sometimes "Так", or, when the question is about presence or existence of something, or the conversation is military-style - "Есть!"

"Нет" can be shortened to "Не", or, when the question is about presence or existence of something - "Нету".

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    Also add ну, which may mean both confirmation and reluctance, depending on intonation and pitch.
    – ach
    Dec 6, 2017 at 22:45
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Wishing to say Да sarcastically to mean in fact no when responding to a question or implicitly disagreeing with a statement one can pronounce it as До-о-о. With inquiring intonation До-о-о? means emphasized disbelief or fake amazement oh really?, no shit

A playful or encouraging way to say Нет is Неа

Just like in Ebonics нет can be expressed with interjection uh uh which is reminiscent of Неа. Sadly Russian doesn't have a phonetic representation for it and i don't think it's formally or widely recognized as a valid semantic unit despite being in active use. I guess until it's put into writing it doesn't exist.

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OT. In Russian, да AND нет can even complement each other. "Да, нет." - is an absolutely correct, complete sentence.

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  • In "Да, нет" that да is not 'yes', it's a conjunction translated as "but", like in "Да я не знаю..."
    – Yellow Sky
    Dec 7, 2017 at 1:29

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