word-usage
I'm an amateur writer, writing almost entirely fanfiction, and I use the word 'yea' in my writings rather often instead of yeah. In sentences like "If you mean did that just happen? Yea." or "Yea… I'm gonna need another cup of coffee before dealing with this."
I know that originally Yea was the opposite of Nay but more and more I'm seeing people use it in place of Yeah, dropping the h. Is that becoming the correct way, an acceptable way, of saying it or am I just mistaken?
The Oxford Learners Dictionaries defines worse as, among other things, less good. So I suppose if OLD can use less good, so can we. Still, when comparing two good things I would say:
A 90% score is good, but not as good as 100%.
My admittedly foreign ears don't like the sound of less good than. Google search concurs: not as good as beats less good than 6,000 to 1. This English Grammar advises against less good than on the grounds that "[w]hen making negative comparisons less tends to be used only with multi-syllable adjectives."
Five months later I’m tremendously upset that fickle Google search has not as good as beating less good than 470 to 1 only. I swear it was 6000 to 1 when I first looked into it. Oops, it’s only 17 to 1 in the Ngram. But I include it below hoping it proves more constant. The first few pages of Google books search for less good than return almost only religion and philosophy books. They have more good too (my emphasis):
A degreed property is a property that can be had in different degrees. Goodness is an obvious example of a degreed property. Something can be more good or less good than something else. (David E. Alexander, Goodness, God, and Evil, Continuum, 2012, p. 115.)
"Steel-toed boot" is an acceptable alternative, both usage-wise and meaning-wise.
Usage-wise, I've heard it both ways in two different states (I grew up in St. Louis, but I go to school in Oklahoma), and Google ngram has that it's used a little less than half as much as steel-toe.
Other validating results include Wiktionary, which includes it as an alternative form, and the fact that traditionally they were literally capped, or "toed" with steel.
Best Answer
'Yea' is a real but antiquated word, still in use in various contexts e.g. 'Whose job is it to say yea or nay?
'Yeah' is the representation of an informal pronunciation of 'yes'. (OED).
So if you are reporting informal speech I would suggest you stick with 'yeah'.