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Leshalabe Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

'only'

How best can one use the word 'only'?

John loves football only

John loves only football

Which one is correct/wrong?
  

Top answer

Both are correct. The traditional view is that the adverb only should be placed next to the word or words whose meaning it restricts: I have seen him only once rather than I have only seen him once . The argument for this, a topic which has occupied grammarians for more than 200 years, is that if only is not placed correctly the scope or emphasis is wrong, and could even result in ambiguity.

— Fandorin

  • Both are correct.
  • The traditional view is that the adverb only should be placed next to the word or words whose meaning it restricts: I have seen him only once rather than I have only seen him once .
  • The argument for this, a topic which has occupied grammarians for more than 200 years, is that if only is not placed correctly the scope or emphasis is wrong, and could even result in ambiguity.
  • But in normal, everyday English, the impulse is to state only as early as possible in the sentence, generally just before the verb.
  • The result is, in fact, hardly ever ambiguous: few native speakers would be confused by the sentence I have only seen him once , and the supposed ‘logical’ sense often emerges only with further clarification, as in I've only seen him once, but I've heard him many times (Courtesy of Oxford Dictionary).
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1 Answers
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Both are correct.

The traditional view is that the adverb only should be placed next to the word or words whose meaning it restricts: I have seen him only once rather than I have only seen him once. The argument for this, a topic which has occupied grammarians for more than 200 years, is that if only is not placed correctly the scope or emphasis is wrong, and could even result in
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