I'm going to have to stop using 'no' to affirm negatives. People keep thinking I'm disagreeing with them. Perhaps this is dying.
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Obviously if it were 'It's not polite to chew with your mouth open, is it?' 'No' woud clearly affirm.
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WRONG! The correct answer's "Yes" This is actually a pet peeve of mine. When someone asks a negative question, I say "correct" when agreeing
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Not historically but things change. English was one of the few languages that affirm a negative with a negative. Still does with questions.
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F**k history! The correct answer to affirming a negative is "yes". Saying "no" is as bad as saying "I didn't do nothing".
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Stupid backwards language. "You didn't kill that man" "No you're honour" "Did you kill that man?" "No you're honour" Well which is it?!?!?
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Depends whether its a positive or negative question. From BBC grammar guide.pic.twitter.com/1IS3SIxMsu
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I do not care. Its backwards and illogical. Two negatives make a positive (in this case).
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That's right, yes. Two negatives make a positive generally. Don't not put your coat on = put your coat on.
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Here's the issue for me. Ppl use it both ways. To agree & disagree. This creates misunderstandings. So I always prefer "agreed" or "True"etc
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That is the issue, yes.
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Dutch has this problem as well. You are correct, but in reality both ways are used.
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I know. Otherwise I wouldn't be talking about both ways being used.
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I read this. Maybe I should've just said: Agreed, Helen. I have this problem as well. So I do this.
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Interested in whether it's dying out in British English coz I'm a language geek so I'm asking early before Americans are up. It is there.
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Ah. Right. Ok.
Not British. Not a clue. But I'd understand your "no" being an agreement. -
No, no. I don't mean shut up! I just mean I'm interested in finding out how people understand it. Already decided to stop doing it.
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Since english is not my first language, this is a little confusing yes, in french we would use: "no, it's not".
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But now people are telling me this is wrong & it should be 'yes, it's not' including a Frenchman.
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Yes it's not would be valid too in my book. l'Académie Française doesn't say anything on this, so it's fine.
End of conversation
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Disagreement. If I agreed with your statement I would follow with a Yup/yeah/agree. By this point though I get what u mean when you use "no"
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