How to answer the interrogative sentence with "seldom"

[natrium]

Hello, everyone.

If you say, "No." to the question, "He seldom visits you, does he?", does the "No." mean

(1) "He seldom visits you."
(2) "He often (=not seldom) visits you."
(3) either (it depens)
(4) others

I think "No." means (1), but I'm non native English speaker and confused.


Thank you for reading.

 

[Cagey]

Welcome to the forum, natrium.

That makes two of us; I am a native speaker and I would be confused too.

I would understand, 'Yes' or 'That's right', as meaning that he didn't visit you very often.

If you said 'No', I wouldn't know whether you meant that he visits you often (your #2), or that he doesn't visit you at all, or something else. You would have to say more to explain what you mean.

If you mean that he never visits you, you could say, "No, he doesn't visit me at all."
If you mean that he visits you often, you could say, "No, he often visits me."

 

[natrium]

Thank you very much, Cagey!

I thought native speakers woldn't be confused, so your answer is helpful.

The reason why I thought 'No' meant (1)　is that 'seldom' is almost 'not'.

If you are kind enough to answer my additional question, when the question is "He hardly knows about you, does he?", and you answer "Yes" or "No", the meaning of them is the same as "seldom"?

 

[natrium]

Reading my first reply again, I'm afraid it would be impolite to you. I didn't mean so at all.

I really thought 'No' definitely meant (1). So definitely that I told so to others in a confident manner. Now I have to correct my wrong idea to them in humility. (To tell the truth, they have the same idea as you.)

Thank you very much.