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on the internet I read the following explanation: "we aren't using "no" to agree, we are using "no" to CONFIRM the negative statement."

Does that mean you confirm a negative question with no and agree with yes? That somehow seems strange to me?

poster
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    Can you give an example? – Catija Jul 01 '16 at 20:54
  • It means that on that particular statement you do. It is not an expression of a grammatical rule. It's a clarification so this vote doesn't get counted wrong. – MetaEd Jul 01 '16 at 21:15
  • I just searched online (via a Google search) for the wording "we aren't using 'no' to agree, we are using 'no' to CONFIRM the negative statement"—and the only matches returned are to this question on English Language & Usage. I had hoped to find the original example that your question quotes, but instead I'm left to wonder whether the quotation itself is inexact. Can you double-check your original source? – Sven Yargs Jul 02 '16 at 00:19
  • One would have to see more of the context to understand what was meant and determine if it made sense. – Hot Licks Jul 02 '16 at 03:17

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An example of what the OP is asking about (as I understand it) would be:

Alice: "Didn't you hear about the party?"

Bob: "No, I didn't hear about it."

Here, Alice's question is in the negative. Bob says "no", but this actually confirms that he didn't hear about the party. If he wanted to say that, contrary to what Alice suggests, he had heard about the party, he would say "Yes, I did."

I agree, this is kind of weird.

More examples at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv330.shtml

Hugh Thomas
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  • But I could also reply with, “No, I heard about it- I just didn’t want to go.” – Jim Jul 03 '16 at 19:19
  • Earlier tonight, I caught myself doing the opposite of what OP asked about/what the BBC website says. Someone asked me "don't you like it?" and I said "No, I like it." So I think the behaviour asked about by the OP and described on the BBC website is not universal. – Hugh Thomas Jul 04 '16 at 02:48