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The word "only" in Esperanto

de rajatagrawal21, 2016-februaro-26

Mesaĝoj: 14

Lingvo: English

rajatagrawal21 (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 07:08:03

In Esperanto, what is the difference between the word "sola" and "nur" when they both mean the same thing, which is "only". I cannot find the answer to this despite searching about it on the internet extensively.

Can someone please clarify on this?

Thanks // Dankon!

Miland (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 07:39:19

They don't mean the same. Sola refers to persons and means "alone", e.g. lasu min sola means "leave me alone".

bryku (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 07:49:24

rajatagrawal21:In Esperanto, what is the difference between the word "sola" and "nur" when they both mean the same thing, which is "only". I cannot find the answer to this despite searching about it on the internet extensively.

Can someone please clarify on this?

Thanks // Dankon!
Do not see the esperanto words through English (or any other language). You must understand the meaning in Esperanto itself. See here:

sola
nur

Mustelvulpo (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 14:13:01

Nur mi estis tie. = Only I was there.

Mi estis la sola persono tie. = I was the only person there.

Do you see the difference?

richardhall (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 20:13:36

rajatagrawal21:In Esperanto, what is the difference between the word "sola" and "nur" when they both mean the same thing, which is "only".
The Eo-Eo defintions in the Lernu! dictionary are helpful:
Nur:
ne pli ol (nur tiom); nenio/neniu alia ol (nur ŝi; nur tiu; nur tio); ne alimaniere ol (nur tiel); ne en alia tempo ol (nur tiam)

Sola:
sen aliaj; sen akompano; ununura

Zulidyan (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 23:17:50

I might be a little confused about it myself, but the way I've been thinking about it is using "nur" like "just/only", e.g. "It's only a game/It's just a game" -> "Nur estas ludo."

So if I'm not mistaken you use "sola" like "sole/only" e.g. "I was the only person there/I was the sole person there" -> "Mi estas la sola persono tie."

nornen (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-26 23:22:52

To make things even more confusing:

Zamenhof:Lia nura alproksimiĝo kompromitis virinon, interparolo kun li estis por ŝi dekreto de malhonoro
nur/nura vs sole/sola

lagtendisto (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-27 13:06:20

nornen:nur/nura vs sole/sola
vs ekskluziva, too?

opalo (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-27 13:26:25

The basic difference is that nur implies some sort of insufficiency or surprising minimalness: "only", "merely", "no more than".

Li estas nur knabo. He is a mere boy.
Li estas sola knabo. He is an unaccompanied boy. He is a lone boy.
Li sole estas knabo. He is the only boy. He alone is a boy.

Tio estas la ununura libro pri la temo. That is the only book on the subject.
Tio estas la unusola libro pri la temo. That is the one book on the subject.
La libro estas nur en la angla. The book is only in English.
Ni parolas nur Esperanton. We only speak Esperanto.

Here are some more examples of how to say things:

La hundo vagis sola en la parko. The dog wandered alone in the park.
La hundo vagis sole en la parko. The dog only wandered in the park.
Mi estas soleca. I am lonely.
La parko estas soleca. The park is lonely. The park is a lonely place.
La parko estas izola. The park is a solitary place. The park is (pleasantly) isolated.

sergejm (Montri la profilon) 2016-februaro-28 16:58:07

Here is an example, there 'nur' and 'sola' meet together:
'La straton lumigis nur unu sola laterno'
(I don't know how precisely to translate it to English)

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