"Es lautet ja."

[rebtree]

Do they mean, "It is, yes."?

[kyky]

I cannot spontaneously think of anything that "es" replaces but the sentence means "it = yes". Consider "Sie (= die Antwort) lautet ja." - "It (= the ansewr) is yes."

[georgewreid]

Das Wort lautet ja = Es lautet ja ????

[carolina_passos]

I get what you mean, but this context you are talking about is too specific, and I honestly do not understand what could possibly replace 'es' in the sentence. Also, isn't 'is' translated as 'ist' in German? When and why should we use 'lautet'?

[nrpetkovic]

Is this an expression?

[jkcook]

Is that the same as "Yes, it is" which is something more common in English.

[jkcook]

The powers that be said they'd accept the entry of 'Yes, it is,'

There's a problem with this language learning method of only having phrases instead of conversations or at least some context. This is one example of that.

[demitriap]

it is yes is not even correct english

[MusicMan82]

Agreed - it should at least say this:
It is "yes." or
It reads "yes."

[duoderSie]

I think this is very dodgy