JaNeinFragen

JaNeinFragen is a term used in German linguistics and language education to denote polar questions that are designed to be answered with a simple "ja" or "nein." In practice, these are yes–no questions, as opposed to W‑questions (fragen mit Fragewörtern wie wer, was, wo) or rhetorical questions. The concept also appears in applied contexts such as survey design and language teaching, where binary responses are common.

In standard German, yes–no questions are typically formed by inverting the finite verb and the subject in main clauses. For example: "Kommst du heute?" (Are you coming today?) or "Hast du das Buch gelesen?" (Have you read the book?). In informal speech, questions may also be conveyed by rising intonation without full inversion, especially in casual settings or when the question is embedded in a larger utterance. Negation can affect the surface form, as in "Kommst du nicht heute?" or "Du kommst heute nicht, oder?" where emphasis or contrast is introduced.

JaNeinFragen serve several practical purposes. In education, they are used to practice pronunciation, intonation, and the ability to provide concise factual answers. In surveys and data collection, polar questions yield straightforward binary data. In computational linguistics and natural language processing, categorizing sentences as yes–no questions aids tasks such as question answering, dialogue systems, and sentiment or intent analysis.

Variations include embedded yes–no questions within longer sentences and polar questions expressed through particles like "doch" to influence expectation or contrast. The term highlights a fundamental and widely used sentence type across German-speaking contexts. See also: W‑Fragen, polar question, German grammar.