student asking question

Does "the only ladies" refer to two daughters? Can "only" give the meaning of two?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Good question. Asking if something is the "only" is a way of saying are there any more or any others. By asking if they are the "only ladies" of the house he's asking if there are any more women in the house to try on the slipper. "Only" on its own does not carry any numerical value and simply means "nothing more than this", whatever the current value is. Ex: He is my only brother. Ex: We only have three more tries. Ex: A. Did you eat all of the cookies? B. Of course not. I only ate half of one.

Popular Q&As

04/19

Complete the expression with a quiz!