Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word jo. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word jo, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say jo in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word jo you have here. The definition of the word jo will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofjo, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
as you know or should know; sometimes vaguely translatable as after all or obviously
2015, Henriette E. Møller, Jelne, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:
Jeg ved ikke, hvad de talte om, hendes sind blev så mørkt, jeg kunne jo ikke rigtigt snakke med hende.
I do not know of what they spoke, her mind became so dark, I could not really talk with her, as you should be able to see.
2009, Sven Arvid Birkeland, I krigens kølvand: danske skæbner efter 2. verdenskrig, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN, page 479:
Han gik jo ikke i krig i håb om, at det skulle blive den store sejr
After all, he did not go to war in the hopes of achieving great victory.
2016, Anita Krumbach, Dorte Lilmose, Hanne Kvist, Helle Perrier, Iben Mondrup, Louis Jensen, Ronnie Andersen, Sissel Bergfjord, Svend Åge Madsen, Tomas Lagermand Lundme, Det du ikke ved: Noveller for unge, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN:
Jeg mener, at selv ens eget navn eller alder KAN man jo ikke være 100 procent sikker på er Dennis/17, vel?
I mean, one obviously cannot even be 100% sure that one's own name or age are Dennis and 17, can one?
yes(used to contradict a negative statement or negatively phrased question) (often followed byI do, he is, etc. in English to indicate contradiction rather than affirmation); identical in usage to the French si. Contrasts with ja which confirms positive statements or positively phrased questions.
Du elsker mig ikke, gør du vel? — Jo!
You don't love me, do you? — Yes, I do!
Jeg har ikke gjort noget! — Jo!
I didn't do anything! — Yes, you did!
Usage notes
Negatively phrased questions like Kommer du ikke?, Du kommer ikke, vel?, Du kommer ikke? ("Are you not coming?", "You are not coming, are you?", "You are not coming?") must be answered with jo to indicate that the speaker is, in fact, coming; they cannot be answered with ja ("yes").
^ Itkonen, Erkki, Kulonen, Ulla-Maija, editors (1992–2000), “jo”, in Suomen sanojen alkuperä [The origin of Finnish words] (in Finnish) (online version; note: also includes other etymological sources; this source is labeled "SSA 1992–2000"), Helsinki: Institute for the Languages of Finland/Finnish Literature Society, →ISBN
^ “ju”, in Eesti etümoloogiasõnaraamat [Estonian Etymological Dictionary] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2012
Further reading
“jo”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02
From the respective dialectal words for yes in about half of Northern and Central Germany and all of Western Germany (compare Low Germanja, jo). Possibly from Proto-Germanic*ja(“yes, thus, so”), possibly from an unrecorded root. The form with /oː/ must have existed in the Middle Ages already, since the word often partakes in the same sound shifts as words with /oː/ from other sources, cf. Swedishjo, Middle Englishyo (> Englishyo).
Perhaps borrowed from Latvianjau(“yet, already, after all”). However, compare also Finnishjo(“already”), thus ultimately a common Finnic borrowing from Proto-Germanic*ju that has likely been contaminated by the more figurative senses of Latvian jau, with the latter ultimately a distant cognate of the initial Germanic borrowing.
bumblebees, they are already migrating to their burrows (lit. "going inside of earth")
amād jo ītist äb peļļõt
not everyone makes the same (lit. "everyone after all doesn't earn the same")
Usage notes
LĒL only lists jo without listing any instances of juo. Livonian-Latvian-Livonian dictionary, in turn, only lists juo for the comparative forming preposition sense.
LĒL doesn't explicitly list the second sense that seems to exactly mirror Latvian jau (including the more figurative applications.) Such a function, however, is inferred from the many usage examples available in the dictionary. As a translation of Latvian jau (strictly in its temporal sense) LĒL lists jõbā(“already”), cf. Estonian juba.
Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia., Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 127
The reduced forms with an apostrophe are enclitic; they immediately follow verbs or conjunctions. Dü is deleted altogether in such contexts. At is not enclitic; it can stand in any unstressed position and refers mostly to things. In reflexive use, only full object forms occur. Dual forms wat / onk and jat / jonk are obsolete, as is feminine jü / hör. Independent possessives are distinguished from attributive ones only with plural referents. The forms üsens, jamens, hörens are used optionally (and decreasingly) when the possessor is a larger community, such as a village, city or nation.
Koponen, Eino, Ruppel, Klaas, Aapala, Kirsti, editors (2002–2008), Álgu database: Etymological database of the Saami languages, Helsinki: Research Institute for the Languages of Finland
yes; in disagreement with the last speaker's negative statement.
Du har ikke pusset tennene vel? - Jo, det har jeg.
You haven't brushed your teeth, have you? - Yes, I have.
yes or no; expressing doubt. (colloquial)
Vil du være med? - Jo...
Do you want to join? - I'm not sure...
Usage notes
Ja can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to. Jo is used instead of ja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In example 1, agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As such ja would be ambiguous. The answer jo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker.
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Polański, Kazimierz (1971) “jo”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka Drzewian połabskich [Etymological Dictionary of the Polabian Drevani Language] (in Polish), number 2 (ďüzd – ľotü), Wrocław, Warszawa etc.: Ossolineum, page 225
Polański, Kazimierz, James Allen Sehnert (1967) “jo”, in Polabian-English Dictionary, The Hague, Paris: Mouton & Co, page 75
Olesch, Reinhold (1962) “Je”, in Thesaurus Linguae Dravaenopolabicae [Thesaurus of the Drevani language] (in German), volumes 1: A – O, Cologne, Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, →ISBN, page 374
Antoni Krasnowolski (1879) “jo”, in Album uczącéj się młodzieży polskiéj poświęcone Józefowi Ignacemu Kraszewskiemu z powodu jubileuszu jego pięćdziesięcioletniéj działalności literackiéj (in Polish), Lviv: Czytelni Akademickiéj Lwowskiéj; "Gaz. Narod." J. Dobrzańskiego i K. Gromana, Słowniczek prowincjalizmów zebranych w ziemi chełmińskiej i świeckiej, page 303
Ah, yeah, that's probably correct when I think about it
(with an excited, rising tone)Expresses having an insight; oh
Jo(ooo)! Nu kom jag på hur man löser pusslet.
O(ooo)h! I figured out how to solve the puzzle now.
A filler, at the start of an utterance (to get someone's attention); listen, so, hey, etc. (compare "yeah")
Jo, det är så att det är en grej som jag måste berätta för er
So, there is something that I have to tell you ("So, it is such that there is a thing that I have to tell you," with some common stalling wording)
Usage notes
Ja(“yes”) can be interpreted as an agreement with the person replied to. Jo is used instead of ja if this agreement could cause ambiguity. In the example above agreement with the person asking the question would be the opposite of a confirmation that one actually did brush the teeth. As such ja would be ambiguous. The answer jo removes the possibility of agreement with the speaker. In Swedish dialects spoken in northern Sweden and Finland, it is however not uncommon for the word jo to be used in place of ja in all cases, at least in spoken language.
(with following directional suffix -nno)indicates a point of origin
Usage notes
This postposition also infrequently occurs without -nno, in which case it is not clear whether it inflects at all and its meaning is difficult to determine.
References
Cáceres, Natalia (2011) Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana, Lyon, pages 277–278