Sunday, January 5, 2020

grammar - sometimes だけ gets mildly confusing..


If someone says それだけ、食べないでください, does it mean:





  1. Please don't eat only that [eat other things too!]


    or




  2. [You can eat anything you like but] only that, please don't eat it.






What about それだけ、たべてください? Does it mean:





  1. Please eat only that [and don't eat anything else].


    or




  2. [I don't really care if you eat anything else but] only that, please eat it.





Answer




This is really ambiguous and depends on how it's stressed/paused:



それだけ食べないでください。
"Please don't eat only that."


それだけ、食べないでください。
"Please don't eat that. (Eat anything else.)"



The actual sentence seems to have been this though:



それだけは、食べないでください。

    ^



That marks それだけ as the topic, which clearly means "Please don't eat that."


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