negation - Answering the question: Do you mind if...?


The following always puzzles me as a non-native speaker.


When somebody asks the question "Do you mind if...", there seem to be two possible responses.



  1. "Sure" and "No, not at all", which both mean that the person doesn't mind.

  2. "Actually, I do mind", which means that the person does mind.


Why is this so confusing? Especially, how come people reply "Sure" to this question, if that could be understood to mean that they for sure do mind?



Answer



"Do you mind..." is a polite way of asking "Can you...." For this reason, it's usually acceptable to respond to the semantic intent of the question by answering "Yes (I can do that)", rather than responding to the grammatical form with "No (I don't mind)".


Native speakers sometimes get confused by this, too.


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