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  • This is the only kind of book I like to read.

  • Hi. James from engVid.

  • This is the only book I like to read or kind of book.

  • I say this because it's a very funny word: "only", because it has a cousin named "just".

  • And "only" and "just" in the English language, they get used a lot.

  • You'll hear people: "I just want this, and I only want that."

  • So a lot of students who are studying English will believe that they are the same word or

  • they're almost exactly the same, but this is not true.

  • "Only" and "just" have one similar meaning, and you might say 60% of the time they match

  • up, so you can say it.

  • "It's only five dollars.

  • It's just five dollars."

  • But don't get confused that because they match up like that, that they're always the same.

  • So, this is why E's having a problem.

  • He looks at this sentence: "This is the _______ time you can come."

  • Is it: "This is the just time you can come" or "This is the only time you can come"?

  • Well, in today's lesson, I'm going to help address your problem with "only" and "just",

  • and help you figure it out, and give you a couple of other uses for them.

  • Are you ready?

  • Let's go to the board.

  • Okay, E. Let's figure out which one it should be.

  • And I'm going to tell you right now that: "This is the only time."

  • And when we get over here, we're going to figure out why.

  • Okay?

  • So: "just".

  • "Just" and "only" are similar when we use them in an adverb word...

  • Way, and in this case, for "just", it means no more than one; and for...

  • Excuse me.

  • "Only", it means exclusive.

  • Well, what does "exclusive" means?

  • "Exclusive" means it's one of a kind.

  • Right?

  • Or you're not...

  • If it's exclusive, nothing else can come around it.

  • So, if you go to an exclusive club, for instance, to go dancing, maybe only people who are wearing

  • polo shirts can go; it's exclusive.

  • If you don't have a polo shirt, you cannot go.

  • Because it means to exclude.

  • Right?

  • So, in this case, we have...

  • And the adverb for "just", it means no more than.

  • No more than this.

  • So, no more than five or no more than one.

  • So, when we say, for an example: "They just wanted my money.

  • It was no more than money."

  • It's not your brains, or your talent, or your good looks; it's only the money they're talking

  • about.

  • And you might have noticed how I dropped the word "only" in that sentence.

  • I could do that.

  • I could say: "They only wanted my money."

  • Because in this case, they are very similar, and you can see the scale is balanced.

  • When we talk about "only" and we talk about exclusive, here's an example.

  • Right?

  • "Exclusive" meaning "to exclude".

  • "We only have two tickets left."

  • All the tickets are gone except these two; there are no more than that.

  • So, in this case, you go: "Oh, look, James, no more than".

  • Yeah.

  • See?

  • We can use them almost in a similar fashion.

  • "We have only two tickets left."

  • Exclusive.

  • It's special.

  • But this is...

  • Down here...

  • I'm going to put down here, sorry.

  • These ones are not similar.

  • When we're looking in this particular case where they're not similar, you cannot use

  • the same words in the sentences that I've provided underneath because they don't make

  • sense.

  • Let's look at the word "just".

  • In this case, it means exactly.

  • Exactly.

  • So, if I say: "This vacation is just what I need."

  • I cannot say: "This vacation is only what I need."

  • It doesn't have the same meaning.

  • This means exactly what I need.

  • All right?

  • Over here.

  • Sorry, let's finish this one off.

  • Another one we can say is just very recent.

  • "Very recent" means almost close to now.

  • I'll give you an example.

  • "I had just missed the bus."

  • I cannot say: "I had only missed the bus".

  • "Just missed the bus", here, means the time is here now, and the bus was missed maybe

  • two minutes before; I just missed it a short time from now.

  • "Only" will not work here.

  • And this is...

  • These are the two cases in which "just" differs from "only".

  • Good?

  • Let's go on to this side of the board, and I'll give you two more cases so you have four

  • examples, and you can start to see why 60% of the time they are similar-right?-but why

  • you cannot use them, you know, interchangeably, like just say: "only" all the time or "just"

  • all the time, because it will change the meaning of the sentence.

  • Now, when we talk about "only", it means one choice.

  • Sorry.

  • Not one choice.

  • When we talk about adjective for "only".

  • Here, I said "only" - I couldn't think of another word for it because it's one.

  • If only...

  • Can I put this?

  • I could just put this, here.

  • I couldn't think of another word, except "the one".

  • The one thing.

  • Right?

  • "She was the only woman to love me."

  • This isn't talking about exactly; it wouldn't make any sentence.

  • "She was the just woman to love me."

  • It wouldn't make any sense.

  • It means there's one category or one thing, and you can see "only" has "one" written in

  • it, so "one" is the best thing.

  • I couldn't even think of another word to replace "only" in here, except "only".

  • Just doesn't...

  • Doesn't work.

  • When we look down here, we have another adjective using for only, and it's: "The only choice.

  • The only choice."

  • So, in this one, it says "one" - the one; here, it means you have no other choices.

  • You might think this or that, but you can only go in one direction.

  • Okay?

  • "It's the only place I like to eat" means I cannot make a choice.

  • Maybe I'm a vegetarian...

  • This is a good one.

  • I'm a vege-...

  • No.

  • I'm a vegan with gluten allergies and peanut allergies, so the Sheep Restaurant or the

  • Sheep Grass Restaurant is the only choice for me, because everything else will kill

  • me.

  • I had no choice; it's the only choice I can make.

  • Cool?

  • So, if we look over here, as an adverb-they can both be used as adverbs-and the exclusive

  • is similar to no more than.

  • Okay?

  • It means limitation.

  • And if we want to look at when they're not similar, it's rather interesting that we have,

  • in this case, these ones are both adverbs; and in this case they're both used as adjectives.

  • So that should be able to help you figure out whether or not you should use "just" and

  • "only", besides the definitions I've given you.

  • Cool?

  • All right.

  • Well, you know that's never enough for me; this is only the beginning or just the beginning.

  • See?

  • I could use these, here; same.

  • Let's go to the board.

  • We got some homework to do, a quiz, and a few more pieces of information about "just"

  • and "only" I want you to have.

  • Ready?

  • [Snaps]

  • And we're back.

  • Just in the nick of time.

  • I want to gi-...

  • I want to give you a couple more uses for "just", and a third one I haven't written

  • on the board, but I'll just say it.

  • I didn't mean to say that.

  • Okay, so just one more.

  • "Just" can also be used for barely, and "barely" means by a little; not by much, so a very

  • small amount.

  • The example I have here is: "I have just enough money to go."

  • So what does that mean?

  • It means I don't have much more, so let's just say I'm taking the bus, and the bus costs

  • one dollar, and I have $1.50.

  • That's not a lot of money; it's a very small amount of money.

  • Right?

  • So, you got one dollar, the bus costs...

  • Okay.

  • You have a $1.50, okay?

  • The bus costs $1.25.

  • You don't have a lot of money.

  • You barely have enough.

  • 25 cents difference and you cannot take the bus.

  • Okay?

  • That means barely.

  • Next is also an adverb use: really or absolutely.

  • Sometimes when we say "just", we mean "really" or "absolutely".

  • Here's my example: "That's just stupid."

  • In other words: "That's really stupid.

  • That's absolutely stupid."

  • And people will say it with that tone.

  • All right?

  • "You just got here?

  • You really just got...?

  • Like, you really are here now at this time when you're late?"

  • That's another way we use it.

  • The tone will even change when we say that.

  • That's why I like that one: "That's just stupid.

  • It's absolutely stupid."

  • [Laughs] Sorry.

  • Now that I've done those two for you and I've had a bit of a laugh for myself, let's go

  • back to the board because we have four questions that are begging to be answered.

  • And I'll be honest, there's one trick question in there, so you have to be very careful when

  • you answer it.

  • Are you ready?

  • First question is...

  • Or the first statement we have is: "It was the just/only choice she could make."

  • What would you say?

  • "It was the _______ choice she could make."

  • Mm-hmm.

  • Correct. "only".

  • "That's the only choice you could make; you had no other options.

  • Or the options that were given to you were not very good ones, so that's the only choice

  • you could make."

  • How about this one?

  • And look at the position it's in.

  • Remember we talked about looking at adverb or adjective?

  • "It was the only choice".

  • There's an adjective use, and you go: "Oh, yeah, it's the one that we had at the bottom,

  • here - it said: 'Only one choice to make', and an adjective" - there you go.

  • Let's look at the next one: "That glass of water was just/only what I

  • needed."

  • Yes, "just what I needed".

  • In this case, "just" means exactly.

  • Do you remember we talked about adverb and exactly?

  • And here's our verb, and it's modifying the verb, so it's adverb, was just what I needed.

  • And what did we say over here?

  • Adverb use.

  • Right?

  • And change that word to "exactly", and it works, and that's how we remember that one.

  • What about number three?

  • "You are the just/only person allowed here."

  • Hmm.

  • Now, is this an adverb or an adjective?

  • If you look carefully, it's an adjective: "only person", and it's a specific person.

  • "The only person allowed", and because it's exclusive...

  • Remember we talked about something being exclusive?

  • So: "You are the only person allowed in here."

  • Cool.

  • Now, let's do the last one.

  • This one's a bit tricky, because depending on what you're looking at...

  • Well, why don't you figure out?

  • I'm going to let you look at it and tell me what the answer could be.

  • "There are just/only five tickets available."

  • Yes, you're right, I wasn't being too nice.

  • It could be either one.

  • "There are only five tickets available" or "just five tickets available".

  • If we say: "There are just", we're looking at an adverb modifying this word.

  • And if we say "only", it's going with the five; it's going with this word.

  • Either word can be used in this sentence, and this is when we say that "only" and "just"

  • are very similar in many situations.

  • And now you can see why; it depends what's being modified in the sentence.

  • And that was a tough one because it could go either way, but I also know you are smart

  • and you paid attention to what I said earlier on, so you would know that both cases are

  • available.

  • Anyway, you've done a really good job, and I would like to make sure we really get this

  • deep inside so you don't make the mistake that native speakers, actually, we don't ever

  • make.

  • And when I thought about this particular lesson, I thought: I've never really thought about

  • it because I just know it, but then I hear students make a mistake and I understand why.

  • It can be difficult because people don't give you the exact...

  • The smaller reasons as to why; they give you the one big, similar one and you think it

  • should fit everywhere.

  • But you know differently, and I'm glad about that.

  • But I'd like you to do some homework, as per usual.

  • I want you to make up a paragraph using "only" and "just" twice each, so a paragraph can

  • have five or six sentences, and then I want you to use "only" for...

  • You know, so I can make exclusive or no more than when we're talking about "just".

  • You know, use them and see how you can play with the sentences to deepen your understanding

  • of the two words, whether they're adjectives or adverbs.

  • Cool.

  • Well, listen, glad you stuck it out with me this long.

  • I want you to go to www.eng as in English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com) because

  • there's a quiz waiting with your name on it.

  • And when you do the homework, put it up on either the website at engVid, or you can put

  • it on YouTube because what will happen is-I guarantee you, because I've seen it-people

  • respond.

  • And then that response, it's a great way to further your English because you can work

  • with other people from all over the world to improve your English, as well as check

  • out and see if you got it right or not.

  • That's a good thing.

  • Anyway, I've got to go.

  • I'm looking around and I can't see, because I never can; they change this thing.

  • There's going to be a "Subscribe" button, press it, and then you're going to see a little

  • bell - hit that bell because that bell will notify you anytime any new stuff I have coming

  • out.

  • So, if you like this video...

  • And if you like this shirt.

  • This is from Francisco in Paraguay.

  • Thanks, Francisco.

  • Yeah.

  • Hit the bell, and you'll notice my latest and greatest, or latest and best, or whatever

  • I can have that can help you.

  • And, as always, thank you and thank you for sharing with your friends, and I look forward

  • to seeing you the next time have a good one.

  • It's only make believe.

  • [Hums]

This is the only kind of book I like to read.

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