Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Are all the following combinations possible? And are their meanings correct ?

a) Only, she told me that she loves me.
= only = however ?

b) She only told me that she loves me.
= she was just telling that she loves me / the only thing she did is to tell me that she loves me.

c) She told me only that she loves me.
= idem ??

d) She told me that she only loves me.
= she told me that she did nothing except loving me / that she was just loving me. (??)

e) She told me that she loves me only.
= only = and that's it ??

By the way can I have here "told" in the past and "loves" in the present?

Have a nice Sunday

[Christine123]

A. I would have to know the context of what was said to answer this correctly, but most likely your observation is correct, and "only" can be substituted with "however," here.

B. The only thing she said was that she loves me.

C. This example has the same meaning as example B, but this example sounds awkward. A native speaker would word this sentence as example B does.

D. This example could be interpreted two ways. For interpretation, you would need more context. It can be interpreted as you observed: She told me she does nothing but love me. It can also be interpreted as she is stating that she loves no one else but me.

E. She is stating that she loves no one else but me.

Yes, you can have the past tense "told" in the same sentence as the present tense "loves." All verbs do not have to be in the same tense in one sentence. By using the past tense "told," you are stating that the act of telling occurred in the past, but the use of the present tense "loves" states that not only did she love me when she was speaking with me, but she still loves me at this moment. If you were to use the past tense "loved," it could be interpreted that she no longer loves me, but she did in the past.

[hela]

Thank you very much for your help, Christine