Ya

[yuh]

-pronoun (pronunciation spelling)

1. you: Give me a hand, will ya?

2. your: Where’s ya brother?

Ya is simply a casual substitute for “you” or “your”. I use this in dialogue, usually to show that someone has a strong accent.

Yah

[yah, yai]

-interjection

1. an exclamation of impatience or derision.

Yah is used in english the same way it is in Korean, usually yelled at someone for being stupid or for doing something upsetting:

Yah, stop that!

It is also one of the commands to get a horse to go (usually in a hurry):

“Yah!” the man yelled to his horse, who quickly took off running at the command.

Yea

[yey]

-adverb

1. yes (used in affirmation or assent).

2. indeed: Yea, and he did come.

3. not only this but even: a good, yea, a noble man.

-noun

4. an affirmation; an affirmative reply or vote.

5. a person who votes in the affirmative.

Yea is mostly used as an informal or casual way to say “yes”. I tend to use it in dialogue to show that the person is being informal or to show a slight accent. It can also be used in historical fiction (yay, for voting for something) or fantasy stories (to add character to the world).

Yay

[yey]

-interjection (informal)

1. (an exclamation used to express joy, excitement, etc.)

Yay2 or Yea

[yey]

-adverb (informal)

1. to the extent, amount, etc., indicated: The doll is yay high.

Yay is used when happy about something, or to show amount (I tend to only use “yay” for these two to avoid confusion, but “yea” is also alright to use if you’d like).

Yeah

[yai]

-adverb (informal)

1. yes

Yeah very simply means “yes” and can be used to substitute it whenever you would like.

If there is anything else anyone struggles with or would like to learn more about then let me know in the comments. I'll add it to my list of things I want to learn and then do a blog post about it for you ( ⌒_⌒)v