What do you think about this introduction to answering Yes/No questions?

Question

I have found a lot of information about asking questions but very little about answering them.

I want to create a rule to help learners answer affirmative/negative questions in Chinese. Presently I ask them to identify the following in a sentence: copulas, modals, main verbs or solitary adjectives and then use them in one or two-word answers. My question is how would you answer the following questions in the simplest way:

1. 李先生在吗？
2. 他是你的朋友吗？
3. 李先生很累吗？
4. 你要这张卡片吗？
5. 李先生有朋友吗？

Answer 1

First answer is yes, and next answer is no:

1. 李先生在吗？ 在/不在
2. 他是你的朋友吗？ 是/不是
3. 李先生很累吗？ 累(This is shortest, but in real life people wouldn't answer like that)/不累(This is native.)
4. 你要这张卡片吗？ 要/不要
5. 李先生有朋友吗？ 有/没有

And using the 嗯 to make no answer is not the right way, people don't speak like that.

Answer 2

Don't know how much I can discover...and I'm not writing that strict rules.

• One can combine Ma with a negative sentence, and its answer is always reverse to the western logic.

e.g.

-你们还没吃饭吗？

-不，吃了。/对，没吃。

• Thus there are direct answers as simplified compound answers based on main verb.

是的／对／对的－不是／不对、 是的－（还）没有 、 有的－没有。

• Note that 你吃了吗? is not really a question asking if you have had meal, but somehow a kind of invitation. The right way to answer is

-你吃了吗?

-吃得可好了。

if you have had your meal and don't want to be invited.

Any other answer leads to the consequence of being invited.

Answer 3

Answering everything with:

嗯

is perfectly acceptable and can avoid having to have any sort of conversation!