Let's take a look at a few examples and see how moving the word "only" around in a sentence can change the meaning of the sentence.

All right, let's begin.

First, I want to define the word "only" and how I'm going to use it for this lesson.

The word "only" for this lesson, uh, we're going to look at it as an adverb.

So an adverb, which means a single case or a single instance of something, so there's nothing different, nothing more, nothing less - there's just this one thing, this one case of something.

Um, but I want to focus for this lesson on the importance of the position of "only" in a sentence.

Um, so one key to keep in mind when you use the word "only" - and this is a point for native speakers and for non-native speakers - we need to place the word "only" as close as possible to the word or to the phrase that it modifies.

And by modifies, I mean "only" is connected to that phrase, "only" is changing that phrase in some way.

And when I say places, place it as close as possible to that word, I mean before that word.

It needs to come before the word it's changing, before the word it's modifying.

So, I want to show, um, a few examples of how to do this, but I'm going to move the word "only" around in the same sentence, so let's take a look: I'll show you what I mean.

Let's take a look at this, this sentence: the base sentence here is Sara saw Michael at the park - a simple sentence.

So, there are two people involved, one action, uh, in this case the past tense of saw and then a location at the park, but I'm going to use the word "only" here in a few different positions to show how much it can change the meaning of the sentence depending on where we place it.

So the first example here I have is: Only Sara saw Michael at the park.

Here the word "only" comes before Sara, so that means that these two words are connected: "Only" is modifying Sara in this case.

This sentence therefore means that Sarah, perhaps in a group of people or with somebody else, Sarah was the "only" person, the single person who saw Michael at the park.

Maybe there were other people in the group she was with, but she was the single person, the "only" person who saw Michael, so "only" Sarah saw Michael at the park.

That's the meaning with the placement of "only" before Sarah here.

Let's look at the next sentence: Sarah only saw Michael at the park.

So here "only" is coming before the word saw, so in this case it's modifying this verb saw.

This sentence therefore means that Sarah, the "only" thing Sarah did, her "only" action was to see, she "only" saw Michael at the park, meaning no other actions happened.

Sarah did not wave to Michael, Sarah did not greet Michael, Sarah did not throw something at Michael, uh, whatever there was no other action.

The "only" action, the single action, the sole action was that she saw Michael - Sarah "only" saw Michael at the park.

So the placement before the verb gives us this meaning.

Let's look at one more example: Sarah saw only Michael at the park.

Here "only" comes before Michael in this case, um, so the connection, the modification is happening here.

Sarah saw "only" Michael at the park means she did not see any other people at the park.

So, this could mean that there were no other people at the park or, um, that maybe she just she just didn't see anybody at the park.

So, this sentence is a little bit tricky, it's a little hard to understand exactly what the writer wants to say.

But it could mean, um, that there were, um, perhaps no people at the park, no other people at the park that Sarah saw.

So she went to the park, she saw "only" Michael.

There was "only" one person, a single person, it was Michael that Sarah saw: So placing "only" before in this case Michael gives us this meaning.

All right, one more sentence: Sarah saw Michael only at the park.

So here the word "only" is coming before this phrase at the park, this location in this case, meaning that there was a single place where Sarah saw Michael.

So Sarah did not see Michael at the supermarket; she did not see him at the store; she did not see him at school; she saw him "only" at the park.

So there's a single location where she saw Michael.

So, these four sentences show us how much the meaning of a sentence can change depending on our placement of the of the word "only."

So, it's important to keep in mind.

Another thing that I've done throughout this lesson a little bit is I've emphasized with my voice the word that "only" is modifying.

But I want to make one more point here: In speech, when actually speaking, we can stress words for emphasis and for clarity to make it very clear which word in the sentence we want to emphasize, which word we want "only" to modify.

So, for example I can say: "Only Sarah saw Michael at the park" or "Sarah only saw Michael at the park."

So, with your voice you have the ability to emphasize certain words and certain phrases in the sentences.

However, in in writing it's not possible to do this so correct placement of the word "only" is quite important.

So I wanted to give you a few examples, uh, and it's just something to think about the next time you use the word "only."

So make sure, um, that you're placing the word "only" as close as possible to the word that it modifies, so just something to keep in mind.

All right so that's it for this lesson, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to let us know in the comment section below this video.

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Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I'll see you again soon.