‘Da net, navernoye’ (‘Yes, no, maybe’) — a soft negation that’s hard to translate
This phrase contains three forms of affirmation: positive, negative, and probabilistic. But the negative wins.
The Russian phrase ‘Da net, navernoye’ often confuses foreigners — does it mean ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘maybe’? In reality, it’s just a polite way to say ‘no.’
Here, ‘da’ is a particle meaning ‘well’ and refers to ‘net’, so it doesn’t carry much weight.