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When you asked "You don't love me, right?": Which word is used to answer, "Right." or "Yes."?

If the answer is "Right":

--> Does "Right" mean "What you said is right, i.e., I don't love you.", doesn't it?

If the answer is "Yes":

--> Which does "Yes" mean, "Yes, what you said is right." or "Yes, I love you."?

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  • Either way you're already in trouble. Trying to pick the "right" word here is far less important than feeling what you're saying. – Hot Licks Sep 16 '16 at 20:49
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    Never, ever, ever, answer a question about whether you love someone with a one-word answer. Either give a long and complete answer, or deny the presupposition and start over with a better question. – John Lawler Sep 16 '16 at 22:04
  • The fact that the question ends with ", right?" is not the problem. The problem is that the question is phrased as a negative.  General advice for negative questions: don't answer with just one word.  Give enough of a phrase to remove the ambiguity that the question raises. – Scott Sep 16 '16 at 22:10
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    Possible duplicate of How to answer a negative question without ambiguity? – Scott Sep 16 '16 at 22:10
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    Maybe it isn't a question at all, but a statement: "You don't love me right." Not that that situation is any pleasanter to deal with. – Sven Yargs Sep 17 '16 at 2:19
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Q: "You don't love me, right?"

A1: "Right." This means I don't love you. Your statement of "You don't love me" is correct.

A2: "Yes." This is an unclear and unusual way of responding, but I would interpret it to mean that I don't love you.

A3: "Yes, I do!" This means I love you!

A4: "Wrong!" This means I love you! Your statement of "You don't love me" is wrong.

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  • English Learner - please use an upvote, and the accept button - don't comment "thanks" – Rory Alsop Sep 17 '16 at 18:09
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You're probably looking for https://ell.stackexchange.com/.

The answer differs depending on the intent of the question.

For your specific example, "You don't love me, right?" implies that the asker thinks the answerer doesn't love them, and is either seeking confirmation or hoping to be contradicted. Answers might be "No, I do love you", "I don't", or "That's right, I don't love you." Just answering "Right" would be considered very terse, and answering "Yes" would be unusual and ambiguous (see How to answer a negative question without ambiguity?).

For a confirmatory question like "Your house is by the sea, right?", "Right" would be a very normal answer.

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  • Thank you! Your answer and the site you showed me helped me a lot. – English Learner Sep 17 '16 at 6:38

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