Using “only”

Those who know me well know that I have innumerable pet peeves when it comes to grammar. One of them is the use of ‘only’.

Here’s a common use of the word only:

“It would only take a few seconds.”

What’s wrong with that, you may ask. The error is in the placement of the word “only”.

“Only” can be used as either an adjective or an adverb. As you know, an adjective describes a noun, and an adverb describes a verb. Thus, one should place “only” as close to the word it describes.

I assume that in the above example the author meant to use “only” as an adjective describing the phrase “a few seconds”. Because “only” is closer to “take”, however, it acts as an adverb. In other words, it‘s describing “take”.

What the author actually says is that the action will only take a few seconds, as compared to say only reading a few seconds, only eating a few seconds, or only wasting a few seconds.

What the author should have written was the following:

“It would take only a few seconds.”

Just keep in mind what you are trying to describe, and you can never go wrong.