Reader question:

What does this sentence – The answer is a qualified “yes” – mean?

My comments:

It means they agree and yet they’re not in total agreement.

A qualified answer is an answer with strings attached. In other words, it is limited. It has restrictions. It isn’t unconditional.

Let me think of an example.

Ok, just as a qualified person has many attributes that makes him or her suitable for a job, a qualified answer is one with conditions too. For example, a qualified accountant must be able to read the books – and perhaps cook the books if and when the corporation asks them to – a qualified answer is also attached to special circumstances. If you ask, for example, if I throw an iron ball out of the window will it fall to the ground, the answer is yes.

It is, in this case, an unconditional yes as no iron balls have ever been known to be able to defy gravity. In this general situation, the iron ball will, like Newton’s apple, fall to the ground. However, if the question is: If I throw an iron ball on a string out of the window, will it hit the floor? Then the answer has to be a qualified “yes”, i.e. under certain circumstances, the answer is “yes” – it will happen.

Or a qualified “no”, i.e. under some other circumstances the answer is “no” – it won’t happen.

If, for example, the string is long enough, the ball will hit the floor. If not, the ball will be pulled back, like a yo-yo.

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