Ne que question

I'm wondering where to put the "que" in ne/que statements.

je n'ai que deux livres "I only have two books."

Ils n'ont suivi que du champagne. They only served champagne.

I'm pretty sure the above is correct, but how would I treat a phrase like the following:

je n'étudie la français que depuis six mois.

Thanks for any thoughts.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on May 3, 2013 at 6:06pm

That 3rd example also seems correct to me .

If you put the "que" between the "étudie" and the "le" (je n'étudie que le français depuis six mois) then you would be altering the original meaning of the sentence but it would be grammatically possible -although it would mean that French was the only language you were studying.

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on May 3, 2013 at 7:19pm

You have the same nuances in English with "only"

1/Il n'ont servi que du champagne (good or bad depending on the context)

2/ Il n'ont que servi (not "suivi") du champagne : you probably expected more, you're disappointed

1/Je n'étudie le français que depuis 6 mois: I've been studying French only for 6 months

2/ Je n'étudie que le français depuis 6 mois: I've been studying only French for 6 months ( I may have studying other languages for longer or shorter time or not at all as George Hunt said)