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Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Madhur about the usage of “had only” and “only had” in English.
你好！本周《名师答疑》，我们回答马杜尔提出的关于had only和only had在英语中的用法问题。
Hi, I would like to clear my concept regarding usage of “had only” and “only had” in written English.
嗨，我想弄清楚在书面英语中如何使用had only和only had。
Thank you for writing, Madhur.
感谢你的来信，马杜尔。
I’m happy to answer this question.
我很高兴回答这个问题。
In general, differences in meaning between “had only” and “only had” depend on the situation.
一般来说，had only和only had之间的意义差异取决于具体情况。
And in many cases, there is no difference in meaning between the two.
并且在许多情况下，这两者之间在意义上没有区别。
In spoken English, the tone of voice we use helps make the meaning clear.
在英语口语中，我们使用的语调有助于使意思清晰。
But without the help of the voice, a writer must write carefully to avoid confusion about “had only” and “only had.”
但是如果没有声音的帮助，写作者必须仔细，以避免对had only和only had产生混淆。
Let’s look at the usage of these terms with the following three cases.
让我们通过以下三个案例来看看这两个短语的用法。
Case One: the same sentence, two meanings.
案例一：同一句话，两种意思。
Consider two situations.
思考这两种情况。
In the first, you wanted to give something to drink to five people, but you only had enough to give two people drinks.
第一种情况，你想给五个人喝点东西，但你的饮料只够给两个人喝。
In this situation, the sentence “I only had two drinks” means you did not have enough drinks for five people.
在这种情况下，“我只有两人的份”表示你没有足够的饮料给五个人喝。
It expresses the idea that there was a problem.
它表达了存在一个问题的意思。
In the second situation, someone said you drank too much alcohol at a party, but you disagreed.
第二种情况，有人说你在聚会上喝了太多酒，但你不同意。
So, you said: “I only had two drinks.”
所以，你说：“我只喝了两杯。”
In this case, you have expressed the idea that there was not a problem with how much you drank.
在这种情况下，你表达了这样一种意思，即你喝多少并没有问题。
So, the same sentence, “I only had two drinks,” can express a problem or the lack of a problem.
所以，同样的一句话I only had two drinks，可以表示有问题或没有问题。
The sentence “I only had two drinks”, by itself, without any situation connected to it, is ambiguous.
I only had two drinks这句话在没有任何相关语境时，它本身是有多重意思的。
Ambiguous means that something is unclear because it can be understood in more than one way.
Ambiguous表示某事不清楚，因为它可以有不止一种理解方式。
Case two: two different sentences, same meaning.
案例二：两个不同的句子，相同的意思。
Consider these two sentences: “We had only one liter of water.” “We only had one liter of water.”
思考这两个句子：“我们只有一升水。”“我们只有一升水。”
Each sentence can mean that there is a problem, that we needed more than one liter.
每句话都可能意味着存在一个问题，即我们需要不止一升的水。
In general, when the adverb “only” follows the verb “had,” the adverb is closer to the object of the sentence and helps show that there is, or might be, a problem.
一般来说，当副词only跟在动词had后面时，这个副词更接近句子的宾语，并有助于表明存在或可能存在问题。
Case three: two sentences, different meanings.
案例三：两句话，不同的意思。
The sentence “We had only one liter of water” usually means that we wanted or needed more water.
句子“我们只有一升水”通常意味着我们想要或需要更多的水。
On the other hand, “We only had one liter of water,” might mean that there is no problem.
另一方面，“我们只有一升水”可能意味着没有问题。
For example, if there were 50 liters of water, drinking one liter would usually not be a problem.
例如，如果有50升水，那么喝一升通常不会有问题。（注：had可以表示“有”或“喝”。）
The examples from all of the above cases help us see how important it is to explain the situation.
以上所有例句都让我们了解到，解释语境是多么重要。
That is because “only had” can have two meanings, depending on the situation.
那是因为only had可以有两种意思，取决于具体情况。
Last, there is another use of “had only” which comes from conditional statements such as the following:
最后，had only还有另一种用法，来自于条件句，例如：
“If I had only been there sooner, I could have seen her.”
“如果我早点到那里，我就能见到她了。”
Here, the use of “had only” following the word “if” expresses regret.
在这里，if后面使用had only表示遗憾。
We hope this explanation helps you, Madhur.
我们希望这些解释能帮助你，马杜尔。
And that’s Ask a Teacher.
以上就是本期《名师答疑》的全部内容。
I’m Andrew Smith.
我是安德鲁·史密斯。
