--- title: The British no date: "2005-08-11T12:00:00Z" categories: - london-2005 wp_id: 583 description: I'm finding the British habit of saying "No" to agree with negative statements quite disorienting. While I expect a "Yeah" to confirm something isn't happening, their literal negation feels like a disagreement during casual conversation. keywords: [british english, linguistics, negation, cultural observations, conversational style, pragmatics] --- I need to get used to the British way of responding with "No" when they really agree with you. For example, in response to "The weather's not looking good," I would say "Yeah." The British say "No." (No, it isn't.) It's a bit jarring -- feels like they're disagreeing. For instance, > "London isn't expensive."\ > "No." (what? you're saying it's expensive?) > "I don't have a ticket."\ > "No." (what? you're telling me I **have** a ticket?) > "There's not enough room."\ > "No." etc. Quite disorienting. I guess it's also a little more hard work. You have to keep track of when to say "Yes" and when to say "No". --- ## Comments - **Sri** _23 Aug 2005 12:54 pm_: All three questions seem to suggest a negative property. COuld it be that they are saying "No?" as a way of confirming your observation? - **Sri** _23 Aug 2005 12:55 pm_: I meant so start with 'All three observations...".. - **Ram** _19 Sep 2005 5:48 pm_: I think now it’s the time to teach them back, what we learned from them.