Word.ws English Dictionary

ya

/jə/UK/ˈjɑː/

ya is the nonstandard spelling of you.

ya is the nonstandard spelling of your.

Meaning of you

Pronoun

you (second person, singular or plural, nominative or objective, possessive determiner your, possessive pronoun yours, singular reflexive yourself, plural reflexive yourselves)

  1. (nominative, objective, plural, second-person, singular, object pronoun) The people spoken, or written to, as an object.
    • Both of you should get ready now.
  2. (US, colloquial, nominative, objective, plural, pronoun) (To) yourselves, (to) yourself.
    • If I may counsaile you, some day or two / Your Highnesse shall repose you at the Tower [...].c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  3. (nominative, objective, plural, second-person, singular, object pronoun) The person spoken to or written to, as an object. (Replacing thee; originally as a mark of respect.)
    • I charge you, as ye woll have my love, that ye warne your kynnesmen that ye woll beare that day the slyve of golde uppon your helmet.c. 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII
  4. (nominative, objective, plural, pronoun, second-person, singular) The people spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Replacing ye.)
    • You are all supposed to do as I tell you.
  5. (nominative, objective, plural, pronoun, second-person, singular) The person spoken to or written to, as a subject. (Originally as a mark of respect.)
    • You are right, Fanny, to protest against such an office, but you need not be afraid.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 208
  6. (colloquial, nominative, objective, plural, pronoun, second-person) A person's favorite sports team.
    • I get that you're from Southeast Michigan, but I'm still surprised that you're a Detroit Lions fan. You have been on the receiving end of losing seasons for a while now.

See all 16 meanings of you

Meaning of your

Determiner

your

  1. Belonging to you; of you; related to you (singular; one owner).
    • Let’s meet tomorrow at your convenience.
  2. Belonging to you; of you; related to you (plural; more owners).
    • Then Ieſus ſaid vnto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 6:7, column 1
  3. A determiner that conveys familiarity and mutual knowledge of the modified noun.
    • Not your average Tom, Dick and Harry.
  4. (Ireland) That; the specified (usually used with a human referent)
    • Your man just bought a new car.

Interjection (1)

IPA/jɑː/

  1. (informal) Yeah; yes.

Adverb

ya (not comparable)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, West-Country, dialectal) yea; yes
    • 'Ya, wilt thou!' said Wallace, 'then tak thee that, […]'1806, Jamieson, Pop. Ballads
    • Ya, auld man, ye ken fine ye wad like me.1894, W. G. Stevenson, Puddin' iii.

Interjection (2)

  1. (informal) Go. (Spoken to horses and cattle.)

Noun (1)

ya (plural yas)

  1. A letter of the Cyrillic alphabet: Я, я.

Interjection (3)

IPA/jɑ/

  1. (Malaysia, Singapore, informal) Yes, yeah (used to express affirmation)

Particle

IPA/jɑ/

ya

  1. (Manglish, Singlish) Used to form a confirmation-seeking tag question, expecting an affirmative response.
    • What about yourself Mr Chee, never look a day older, you'll see the rest of us six feet under… Really you look very well. I heard you went for new treatment in Switzerland ya?…1983, Stella Kon, Emily of Emerald Hill, →ISBN, Act 1, page 21

Noun (2) capitalized: YA

YA

  1. (abbreviation, especially, initialism) Initialism of young adult
    • 22 March 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Gameshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/
      While Collins does include a love triangle, a coming-of-age story, and other YA-friendly elements in the mix, they serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle readers into a hopeless world where love...
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of youth authority.

Proper noun capitalized: Ya

Ya (plural Yas)

  1. A surname from Tamil.

Forms of ya

Adverb
alternative formyaa
alternative formyaw
alternative formyah
alternative formyha
Noun
pluralyas
Interjection
alternative formyeah
alternative formyea
Proper noun
pluralYas

Origin of ya

Reduced form of you. Compare Dutch je, reduced/unstressed form of jij (“you”).

Apparently from German ja and cognates in other Germanic languages; related to English yeah.

From Middle English ya, from Old English ġēa, iā (“yea, yes”). More at yea.

Words formed from ya

Phrases with ya

12 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with ya

Questions about ya

What does ya mean?
Ya means yeah; yes.
What is ya the nonstandard spelling of?
Ya is the nonstandard spelling of you.
What part of speech is ya?
Ya can be an interjection, an adverb, a noun or a particle.
How do you pronounce ya?
Ya is pronounced /jə/.

Words near ya in the dictionary

  1. Y2K futurism
  2. Y2K pink
  3. Y2K problem
  4. Y2K scare
  5. Y2K38
  6. ya
  7. ya ba
  8. ya boo
  9. ya boo sucks
  10. ya boy
  11. ya girl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ya (page history and authors); YA (page history and authors); Ya (page history and authors); you (page history and authors); your (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ya.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ya.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ya. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.