English Questions: When does ‘no’ mean ‘no problem’?

Please note: this post contains advice on Advanced English grammar. For Essential English grammar for Healthcare, check out SLC’s beginner’s course here.

English questions can be very confusing – both for asking, and for understanding. As you saw last week, some questions don’t sound like questions. But if you’re studying Medical English, you’ll need to understand not only the questions, but how you should answer.

Perhaps you know polite answers such as ‘Yes, of course,’ or ‘Absolutely, no problem.’ But there are also questions when, if you want to answer positively, you should actually say ‘no.’

These questions begin with Would you… and a negative-meaning phrase. That’s not a negative question, like ‘Don’t you want to…?’ Instead, the implied meaning is negative. These are words such as the verbs to mind and to bother. They include phrases such as a problem and terribly inconvenient.

And because the meaning is negative, any positive response should be ‘no’.

If you’re confused, look at the examples below.