“Didn’t you go to the party last night?” Which response is correct ? Would it cause confusion if I only said “yes” or “no”?

You would choose either 2 or 3.

In that case, just treat "didn't" like "did" and answer from there. That is how most people do English, believe me, no one counts negatives in a sentence before responding. Also, "I did" works and the technically correct answer is "No, I did"

This is a well-known issue for English, which doesn't have a strong way of answering negative questions - German, for example, has 'doch' which can be used to contradict negative questions. It can be avoided by sidestepping a yes or no and giving a clear "I did go" or "I didn't go" answer. I think the commonly used answer would be your 2, "No, I didn't" despite it being somewhat contradictory in terms of logic.

Others have explained but I’ll (maybe unnecessarily) add my thoughts, which might just confuse things more: “Didn’t you go to the party last night?” is effectively the same as “I believe you went to the party last night, is that true?” So you’d answer either 2 or 3 to that.  For a true negative version of this question, you’d switch the order of some words. It’d be “did you not go to the party last night?” or “you didn’t go to the party last night?” This effectively is the same as “I thought you had gone to the party, but now I think you did not—is that correct?” So for this one, as weird as it may sound, I think someone can use 1, 2 or 3 as an answer. The “yes” or “no” can apply to different things here: either (A) to the belief of the person (implying that they think you didn’t go to the party), as in “no, you are incorrect, I did go to the party last night” or (B) to the actual act of going to the party, as in “you are correct that no, I didn’t go” or “you are incorrect about my not attending—yes, I did go.” But I’m not an expert on English, just a native speaker. It’s a strange language sometimes. And I had to edit this because even I got it wrong at first (and it might still be wrong).

I work with people in India. In the US we would answer “No”. Short for “no, I did not go”. In India they would answer “Yes”. Short for “Yes, i did not go.” It caused problems early on in our calls before we both figured this out. Now we all try not to ask questions in the negative.

You wouldn't include yes or no in your response, you would only say "I did" or "I didn't."

2 and 3 are the "correct" responses. Plain "yes" or "no" is also acceptable. When a question uses the negative like that, it means the answer is expected to be "yes."

As others have said, 2 and 3 are the best for this question and English is a bit backwards in how we answer these compared to other languages bc you're really answering the truth of whether you went or not. You might hear 1 if the question is phrased "you didn't go to the party last night?" And you want to be more emphatic on correcting them, "no, no, I did!"

Additionally to the other people's answers, you couuld repeat the body of the question "I went to the party last night" to avoid confusion.

I feel like a simple no would be understood, as no I didn't, but a simple yes would be confusing. Answers 1-3 all seem like normal responses depending on intonation, but 4 feels unnatural.

Ahh, this is a tricky one! 😅 I used to get confused with these kinds of answers too. The correct ones are: * **"No, I didn’t."** (You didn’t go) * **"Yes, I did."** (You went) The other two sound weird because they mix "yes/no" with the opposite meaning. If you just say **"yes"** or **"no"**, it might be confusing since the question is negative ("Didn’t you...?"). So adding the full "I did/didn’t" makes it clearer!

"Actually, I did" is what I would say. One thing I love about French is that it has a one-word answer for this. Normally, "oui" is "yes" in French, but when you're asserting the positive aspect of a negative statement, like yes, you actually attended the party when someone asks if you didn't, you would just need to say 'si".

It's a negative question. The asker is requesting confirmation of their belief that the person they're asking didn't go to the party. This is answered with no, whether they went or not. No, I did (go to the party). (you are mistaken) No, I didn't. (therefore your belief is correct)

It’s an answer that you will likely need to clarify, you can’t just say yes or no. Like I’d say “yes I went to the party” or “yes I did go”

No, I didn’t. I did. Yes, I did. I did go, yes.

2

“Didn’t you (did you not) go to the party last night?” is the same as asking, “You didn’t go to the party last night, right?” A correct response would be either “Yes, I did go.” or “No, I didn’t go.”

I'm curious to know if there is a difference between US English and British English in the way the answer could be interpreted. As a non-native speaker, to avoid confusion, I would directly answer "I did" or "I didn't". "Didn't you go...?" I believe who is asking has prior knowledge/assumption that you did go, therefore i guess 2) or 3) would be the most natural answers. "Did you not go"...?" who is speaking probably assumes you did not go, therefore 1) or 4) would be the most natural answers.

In casual spoken sense, usually a negative question is a way to confirm something the asker already knows mostly surely. You see Jill on the street, you are confident you recognize her, and you say, "Aren't you Jill?" and she says "Yes." A negative question can also be a form of emphasis: "Isn't it a lovely day?" So if your friend is already sure that you went to the party, they'll ask this question and you'll say "Yes." There is a certain intonation and context where a negative question expresses confusion or doubt. You tell your friend, "I never go to parties!" and your friend says, "Hang on, didn't you go to the party last night?" But still, "Yes" means you went and "No" means you did not go. In some special contexts where the question is actually asking, not confirming, the verb won't use a contraction. So suppose you talked to your friend about the party yesterday, and said, "I probably won't go." Then today, your friend asks, "What did you decide? Did you not go to the party?" From the intonation, it's clear that they don't know whether you went or not. In this case, an answer would be "Yes, I stayed home" or "No, actually, I went." Another way to express the "already knows" implication is with a positive statement and a negative tag question. "You went to the party last night, didn't you?" This works the same. "Yes" means you went. However, it gets most unclear with a negative statement and a positive tag question. When asked "You didn't go to the party, did you?" most of us will answer with a complete sentence, because it would be unclear what "Yes" or "No" would entail.

Negative interrogatives can be tricky because the speaker's interests are complex. You could analyze this one in two parts, as asking: (1) I want to know: did you go to the party? (2) I expected you to go: was I mistaken? If the answer to part (1) is yes, then the answer to part (2) is no, and vice-versa. ————— As a native speaker of American English, I would understand some possible replies as follows: “Didn’t you go to the party last night?” — “No.” You definitely did not go to the party. — “No, I didn’t.” You absolutely, \*clearly\* did not go to the party. — “No — I did!” I mustn't think you didn't go, because you actually \*did\* go! — “Yes.” You went to the party, but this not how I expected you to say it. I’ll ask for details. — “Yes, I did.” You absolutely, clearly went to the party — “Yes I did!” No matter what anyone else says or thinks, I went to the party. — “Yes, I didn’t.” This sounds incoherent and makes no sense in answer to the question. Note that “yes, I didn’t” (as you rightly suspect, I did not go) might sound natural in Japanese. English speakers usually focus more on the facts of the matter, and less on the alignment of attitudes and expectations.

Way too much over thinking in the answers here. ‘No i did’ and ‘yes i didn’t’ are just awkward bordering on incorrect. You can’t use no with a positive or yes with a negative.  Either you did go to the party, or you did not.  If you did, ‘yes I did’ is correct; and you could abbreviate it to ‘yes’ if you want to just pivot to talking about the party; it’s impossible for you to mean ‘yes I didn’t’. You might drop in an ‘actually’ just to emphasize that you want to correct the questioner’s assumption that you didn’t.  If you didn’t ’no I didn’t’ Is correct and you could just say ‘no’ and be fully clearly understood (because there is no possible way you mean ‘no I did’)

This reminds me of "yes, we have no bananas"

2 and 3 are correct answers. 1 and 4 would require a difficult question.

This is an issue with the English language, it's confusing however you say it. If you did go, I'd say 3, if you didn't go I'd say 2.

This is a grammatic left over from Irish Gaelic and one of the few ways it affects English as a whole. You would have to say "Yes, I did go." Irish Gaelic doesn't have a word for yes or no, so many Irish that speak English now phrase questions in ways where someone has to conjugate their answer in the affirmative or the negative.

2 and 3 are the correct answers

This is definitely something that confuses natives as well. But I'll just say how I'd interpret it. "Didn't you go to the party last night?" is a rhetorical question, so: "Yeah." = I did go to the party. "No." = I did not go to the party. I would only say #2 or #3 as a response, if we're going off what you listed.

Just say "I did" or "I didn't"

For me, this is a problem in many languages. But in French and German, they have a solution: si and doch. I particularlly struggle with "do you mind?", because in movies ppl will reply "sure" with the meaning that they do not mind, but by saying "sure", it feels like "yes, I mind", so it is specially confusing for me. Back to the question, it is a problem anyway. "Can you not do it?" If you say yes, does it refer to the question, or to the do it? "Yes, I cannot do it" or "Yes, I can do it". So simply saying "yes" or "no" leaves me in confusion. But it does not happen with positive questions, because in the negative ones, you could either agree with the not, or with the yes, whereas in the positive one, you could only agree with the positive.

Definitely say either 2 or 3. 1 would be if the speaker asked if you didn’t go to the party and you actually had. 4 is just wrong because in the original question “didn’t” means the speaker thought you did. Use it if the speaker thought you didn’t go. You could also just get rid of the yes or no and state whether you did or didn’t This is such a common English problem, like with the sentence “would you/do you mind if I…”, and just saying yes or no is confusing so you almost always need to elaborate a bit.

Just saying “yes” would mean you did go, “no” would mean you didn’t. For maximum clarity I would say 2 or 4 depending on if you did/didn’t go. 2 and 4 are how I’d most likely answer as a native speaker. Yes I didn’t and no i did do not work as responses to this question. 

Either 2 or 3 is the most correct but yes it might cause confusion if you only used yes or no. Using "I did" and "I didn't" is better

Even as a native English speaker, I‘ve always found these kind of negative questions logically confusing too. I think it’s always best, like you’ve done here, to expand on the simple yes or no response with a complete sentence explaining what you actually mean. So… either “Yes, I did,” or “No, I didn’t.”

Interesting nuance here is that it’s asking almost the same question as “did you go to the party” so you would answer both questions similarly but… “didn’t” in this case implies that the asker has some information that you did in fact go to the party and is expecting an affirmative answer. Basically “did you go to the party is a question” but “didn’t you go to the party” is a leading question. Both would be answered the same but the choice between the two depends more on whether the asker is looking for an answer or confirmation/denial.

2, 3 or No would all work. 1, 4 or Yes would be confusing.