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This has interesting consequences on my speaking English. Do you not like me? In French this question including a negative would invite two responses, eit
by remram 4y ago
This has interesting consequences on my speaking English.
Do you not like me?
In French this question including a negative would invite two responses, either "no" (negative agreement, I don't like you) or "si" (positive disagreement, I do like you). No French person would reply "yes" to such a question (that would be ambiguous) or be confused by the "no" or "si" answers.
Of course there is no "si" in English and I know that, but because I grew up speaking French, I intuitively understand "no" to mean agreement, which is not usually what a native English speaker means. I will also tend to reply "no" to mean agreement, though I will not reply "yes": I will notice that I can't say "si", but forget that the absence of "si" also means I can't say "no".
- Wildgoose 4y agoEnglish used to have this distinction, we used to use "yes" as a strong affirmative, and "yeah" otherwise. We still use both words but the distinction between them has disappeared.