Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Would you please tell me what is the difference in meaning between the following sentences?

1) He has ONLY been here for a week.
2) He has been here ONLY for a week.
3) He has been here for ONLY a week.
4) He has been here for a week ONLY.

Many thanks,
Hela

[helen1]

Hi Hela,

Ignore my first posting - I realised it may be too technical so I'll try to put it more simply

In order to work out the meaning in each case you need to look at which part of the sentence ONLY is affecting.

1) He has ONLY been here for a week.
He + has ONLY (been here + for a week)
2) He has been here ONLY for a week.
He + has been here + ONLY (for a week)
3) He has been here for ONLY a week.
He + has been here + for + ONLY (a week)
4) He has been here for a week ONLY.
(He + has been here + for a week) ONLY

So if we look at it this way - the meaning depends on whether Only is stressing the action, the place or the time.

e.g. Sentence 1 = he's been in this place for a week (which is thought of as a short period of time) - however the context may give additional meaning so if for example he is leaving and someone says he's only been here for a week - it probably means they do not want him to go or that they thought he would stay longer.

See if you can work out the others yourself, it would definitely help if you could put them in context as I did with sentence 1 above.

Hope this helps

Helen

[asterix]

They all mean the same thing, I think... i.e. the guy has been here for 1 week - no more, no less.

[helen1]

Asterix - you are correct to an extent.


An adverbial such as ONLY qualifies/adds information about how the speaker views a 'phrasal grouping' - (which can include the whole sentence).

The location of ONLY in a sentence shows what is being emphasised by the speaker and therefore the appropriate 'shade' of meaning.

I believe this is what Hela was trying to work out -

Helen.

[hela]

That's right Helen! You got my point.

All the best,
Hela