|
How Do Questions Work in English
Suppose you're living in Tokyo and you don't speak any Japanese. A Japanese friend who lives in Osaka phones you. She's the wife or your friend Mr. Watanabe Tarou, who has exchanged letters with you for years. As you have helped her husband very much in the past, she feels somewhat grateful towards you, though you don't know her much. Fortunately she has very good English -for a Japanese, that is. She says:
| Keiko: |
Hi John, I'm Keiko. Do you think you will have free time this Sunday?
|
| John: | Yes. |
Everybody knowing English knows that the word "yes", here, is short for "I will have free time this Sunday". An answer of "no" would mean "I won't have free time this Sunday". This hardly needs any explanation.
The conversation goes on:
| Keiko: |
Well, you know, the blooming forecast says that, likely, this Sunday the sakura will be in full bloom in a place we know near here. Taroo and me and some friends are going to see it. Won't you go with us ?
|
| John: |
If he wants to go.
Of course !
That's a wonderful idea !
Yes.
If he doesn't want to go.
I'm sorry, but...
Thank you for your kindness, but...
No, I can't...
No. |
At this point there are a hundred ways of telling your friend that you agree. You might answer "of course!", "that's a wonderful idea!", "yes"... depending partly on your mood and partly on the politeness or friendliness you want to show. We might say that all those share the basic meaning "I'll go". This doesn't necessarily mean that answering directly "I'll go" or "yes" would feel right, of course.
There are also many ways to disagree, i.e., a hundred ways of saying "I'll not go". If you don't want to go, you might say instead "I'm sorry, but..." or "thank you for your kindness, but..." or "no, I can't...", or simply "no". All these English expressions have the same basic meaning, namely "I won't go", but you choose one or another depending on your mood, and depending on how much you care about hurting the feelings of your friend Keiko. A plain answer of "No." or "I won't go" would get your meaning across; it wouldn't necessarily sound right, though.
Notice that Keiko might have asked "will you go with us?" and you would have answered still the same way: "yes" means you'll go, "no" means you won't. In English, the two questions "won't you come with us?" and "will you come with us?" have the same meaning (the first is slightly more polite, though).
Suppose you answer "yes" and ask your friend how might you get there. She might ask
| Keiko: |
Don't you have a car ?
|
| John: |
No.
|
| Keiko: | OK. Then, I'm faxing you a map of the trains you should take to get there. |
Notice that, in English, the questions "do you have a car?" and "don't you have a car?" mean the same thing. One of them is slightly more polite than the other, but they mean the same thing, and you may use the same answer for both questions: "Yes." is short for "Yes, I do" and means you do have a car, while "No." stands for "No, I don't" and means you don't. This is obvious to anybody knowing English, right?
Maybe surprisingly for you, it's not obvious at all to a Japanese learning English. Instead, it must be carefully explained in a classroom.
|
