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Question 284 - Answering Yes/No questions
Dear Graham,
I want to know about the best way to respond to Yes/No questions in a comprehension for upper primary students.

The context is : after reading some posters of different trips. Pupils have to give short answers to the question:

Mark has drawing classess on Saturday evenings. Can he join Trip A ?

A: No.
A: No, he can't.

Are both good answers?

Form,
Joe
Dear Joe
Yes/No questions are obviously answered with .Yes・ or .No・ so both of your options are correct. Adding .he can・t・ is more polite but both would get a tick in a quiz.

There are many ways to answer questions in English.

e.g. Q: Mark has drawing classess on Saturday evenings. Can he join Trip A?
A: No!
A: No, he can・t.
A: I・m afraid not.
A: That・s not possible.
A: Certainly not.
A: Yes!
A: Yes, he can.
A: Sure!
A: Why not?
A: Of course he can.

So we can teach answers to questions but must remember that there are many possible correct ones. This makes writing MC questions more difficult!

Best wishes
Graham
Mr Graham Young Send us your questions now!