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Old 10-Nov-2006, 12:58
mbale mbale is offline
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Default Re: responding to negative questions?

if your question is
"Is it that he is not here?", the verb you are answering is the first, is, which is positive, so the answer, "yes, he is not here", is right. If the question is "Isn't he here?", then the answer is "No he is not". Actually the first question is a positive question with a negative object. HOpe this helps.
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