虽然西施附体

但是说到做到

来发圈下一章

分享英文语法

今天精神不济

就不答复邮件

纯粹提神分享知识 第四章

HELP FOR LEARNERS OF FORMAL BRITISH ENGLISH #4

Only

Do the following two sentences mean the same?

(1) We only sell costumes.

(2) We sell only costumes.

The purpose of "only" is to limit something to one thing. Therefore, placement of this word is very important, otherwise there may be a misunderstanding as to what is really being limited.

(1) We only sell costumes. - Here, "only" is limiting to a certain kind of action. Selling (not, for example, hiring out) is the sole kind of action employed in relation to the costumes.

(2) We sell only costumes. - In this case, "only" is limiting to a certain kind of product. Costumes (not, for example, everyday garments) are the sole kind of product available for sale.

In everyday speech and in most modern writing, it is common for native English speakers to misplace "only". So, sentence #1 would be used by them to mean what sentence #2 means. In most cases, context and/or word emphasis makes sure that the listener understands what the speaker means to say.

Occasionally, "only" is placed at the end of a sentence. When it is done this way, the scope of the limitation applies backwards in the most meaningful way. For example, sentence #2 could be recast as: We sell costumes only.