What is your feeling on answer 3?

[tanukiton]

So ....
Do you like bears?
1 Yes I do.
2 Yes I like bears.
3 Yes I do like bears.
I think the do is working as emphasis but would love some other opinions.

1. Depends entirely on what sort of bear you're talking about.

1. Yes I do (doesn't everyone?)
2. Yes I like bears (stop asking me daft questions)
3. Yes I do like bears (I bloody love them)

Ha ha great answers. Sometimes I feel I am disappearing down the rabbit hole when looking at grammar.

I think there should be a comma after 'Yes' in all cases.

Bit, you are right!

I think there should only be a comma in the second one.

And possibly the third. Not the first though, that's just a normal 'short answer'- yes I do/no I don't.

I would use a comma in all three.

In true pedantic fashion I've just checked all my grammar books, and it seems a 50-50 split on whether a comma is needed or not in N1. None of them give a rule for it though. Some put one in, some don't. Curiously, all of the grammar books written specifically for non-native learners don't have a comma for a short answer.

I wonder if the comma usage relates to what comes next.

Yes I do. (nothing more to be said)
Yes, I do...but I like elephants more.

Don't know though!

Drank, maybe it is a pause for thought comma. Thank you all.

Yes, I like bears, and I would use a comma in all three.

1 and 3 sound good.
2 sounds weird - like you'd be shouting FFS in your head!

I'd put a comma in all all of them after the Yes.

Drank I think Raymond Murphy insists on commas in short answers, doesn't he?

I would use a comma in all three. I think the 'I do' is unnecessary in answers one and three, which obviously makes answer three redundant.

But which bears do you like most?

has to be polar, or red panda.

The 'I do' is necessary in number one as just a single 'yes' is rude. So I tell my students