Answering the question with بَــلَى  and نَــعَــمْ (Seq # 74)

In order to answer a questionبَــلَى  and نَــعَــمْ are used. If the question is positive then نَــعَــمْ means ‘yes’ and بَــلَى  means ‘no’ and if the question is negative then نَــعَــمْ means ‘no’ and بَــلَى  means ‘yes’. Literally بَــلَى   means ‘why not’. Let us understand this by example.

Example

Asking the positive question to Mohammed.

Are you mohammed ?

هَــلْ أَنْــتَ مُــحَــمَّدٌ ؟

His answer can be…

نَــعَــمْ أَنَــا مُــحَــمَّدٌ.

Asking the negative question to Mohammed.

Are you not mohammed ?

His answer can be…

بَلَى أَنَــا مُــحَــمَّدٌ.

Source for the above: From the Notes : Trying to understand the Arabic Language… By Mohammed Aijaz