Expert: Dan Smith - 4/13/2004

Question
Dear Mr. Smith

I have seen the following question on the news paper about English statement but
I could not figure out the reason. ( I am much confused. )

If someone asks you about

" You didn't graduate from any High Schools "

If in fact  I did graduate , should I reply:

Yes, I did or No, I did.

The newspaper quoted , saying it shoud answer " No, I did."
which sounds a bit strange to me.

Could you explain ? or where could I find the answer?


Thanks

Pak Hoi

Answer
The newspaper you read made an error. The usual response of a native speaker who had graduated from high school would be, "Yes I did." (and I would not put a comma there).

First of all, note that the newspaper article incorrectly describes the statement, "You didn't graduate from any high schools," incorrectly as a question. It is a declarative sentence. Note also, that "schools" is incorrect. You would not normally expect someone to have graduated from more than one high school. So that word should be singular.

The response, "Yes I did," appears to me to be an idiom rather than explainable via the logical rules of construction. Don't worry about it too much. It is something a native speaker would know, but idiomatic expressions are always difficult for non-native speakers in any language.