Answering Negative Questions

"You aren’t coming to my party?" and "You didn’t go to work yesterday?" are a special kind of question that you’re probably answering incorrectly. In this lesson, learn all about answering negative questions. And in this video, I’m using only negative questions, or questions with “not” or “never” in them. These negative questions use the word order of a statement rather than question word order. Make sure to watch till the end, where you’ll find some practice to make sure you really understand this lesson.

[neoper]

"She’s no fool." if she is not a fool, is it right if I say " yes she is no fool"?

[birgithade]

I only speak English and German. There's a rule that says: 2 negatives add up to a positive. You can't ( 1st negative) come to my party ? No (2nd negative) = yes ( positive) The answer No implicates that the first sentence (you can't come ?) isn't true. NO (2nd) makes it a yes. ( of course I'll come) Without the information in the parentheses the German answer always sound weird. I think that in colloquial speech most people would answer like you suggested.

[birgithade]

Very interesting. We do the opposite, therefore it is kind of confusing. When someone asks;Aren't you coming?
The answer has to be yes to confirm!. Yes, that's right, in not coming.
A lot of people here use it wrong, though. Seems to be complicated. 😊