When to Use Ne … Que vs. Seulement in French

Two French expressions, ne … que and seulement, both translate to “only” but are used in distinct ways. While seulement is more conversational and straightforward, ne … que tends to be more formal and structured.

I’ll outline their usage through clear explanations, practical examples and tips for switching between the two.

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Seulement

Meaning

Seulement is generally more informal and conversational than ne … que, meaning you are more likely to hear this used in a dialogue or basic short story. Seulement can be thought of as simpler because it is only one word.

The adverb form of seul  (alone), seulement usually follows a verb.

For instance, one might say:

Elle travaille seulement pendant la semaine. (She only works during the week.)

However, placement can change the meaning, so put seulement right where you want to emphasize “only.” Sounds confusing, right? I will show you what I mean (do note that seulement never goes before the conjugated verb):

Elle a payé seulement un euro pour le métro. (She paid only one euro for the metro.)

Here we are emphasizing the good deal she got, as in she paid a mere euro for the metro. So we place seulement directly after the verb payer . Note that the word order in our English translation is the same as in the French.

Elle a payé cinq euros seulement pour le métro. (She paid five euros only/just for the metro.)

Here we are emphasizing how expensive the metro was; she paid five euros and all she got out of it was the fare for the metro. This is why we wait to put seulement after the amount.

In the first sentence, we are emphasizing the small amount she paid; here, we are emphasizing what she got for that money. Again, the word order in English is the same as the French. (However, in this case, in English, “just” makes a more smooth translation.)

Examples

Il avait seulement le temps pour me rencontrer pour dix minutes. (He only had enough time to meet me for ten minutes.)

This one is pretty straightforward. We use seulement to communicate the fact that his time was limited. We put seulement right after the verb because the emphasis is on “he” and the time he had.

À l’épicurie, on doit acheter seulement des fraises et du lait. (At the market, we only need to buy strawberries and milk.)

Here, seulement goes after the infinitive acheter  because we are emphasizing the limited number of items we must buy.

Les enfants veulent manger seulement du chocolat. (The kids only want to eat chocolate.)

Again, seulement comes after the infinitive because the emphasis is on the action of eating.

Ne … Que

Meaning

As you can see, whereas seulement is a single word, ne … que is made up of two which literally mean “not … that.” This makes ne … que more formal and literary than seulement. In terms of meaning, however, the two are equivalent and are both translated as “only.”

Ne … que is a sentence construct, meaning we put a word or words in between ne and que to construct a phrase. I will show you what I mean.

The basic word order looks like this:

ne + verb + que + rest of thought.

For example, one might say:

Vouz n‘avez qu‘un sac ? (You only have one bag?)

We put our verb, avoir , right between ne and que.

However, like with seulement, placement can impact meaning; while ne always goes between the subject and the conjugated verb, que may shift a bit. Let’s look at an example:

Elles n‘ont mangé qu‘au restaurant. (They ate only at the restaurant.)

As in they did not eat anywhere else. They ate, but the restaurant was the only place where they did so. To express this, we put que directly before the prepositional phrase au restaurant .

Elles n‘ont que mangé au restaurant. (They only ate at the restaurant.)

As in they did not do anything else or go anywhere else. The only activity they did was eating at the restaurant. Here, we put que directly before the verb manger  because we are emphasizing that eating is the only thing they did. In other words, we are focusing on the action, not the location.

Examples

Let’s look at a few more examples.

Je ne veux qu‘aller en Provence. (I only want to go to Provence.)

Here, we put que right before aller because that begins the phrase explaining what the subject wants to do: aller en Provence  (go to Provence).

Tu ne penses qu‘aux jeux vidéos ! (You only think of video games!)

Here, que follows the general word order, going directly after the conjugated verb. This makes sense as well because aux begins the phrase that tells us that the only thing the person thinks about is: aux jeux vidéos  (about video games).

Je suis certaine qu’il ne boit que du thé. (I am certain he only drinks tea.)

Similarly, que goes after the main verb boit and begins the phrase du thé .

Practice Switching Them Up

Since seulement and ne … que are interchangeable, one of the best ways to become comfortable using them is to take sample sentences and switch them.

For instance, if I replace seulement with ne … que in the sentence:

Maintenant, j’ai seulement une autre phrase à écrire. (Now I only have one more sentence to write.)

It becomes: 

Maintenant, je n‘ai qu‘une autre phrase à écrire.

Let’s take a look at some more examples of seulement and ne … que used interchangeably:

Seulement	Ne ... que	English Translation
Nous sentons à l'aise seulement dans notre ville natale.	Nous ne sentons à l'aise que dans notre ville natale.	We only feel comfortable in our hometown.
On aime la pizza seulement aux champignons.	On n'aime que la pizza aux champignons.	We only like pizza with mushrooms.
Tu habitais seulement aux États-Unis.	Tu n'habitais qu'aux États-Unis.	You have only lived in the United States.
Je sors seulement les après-midis.	Je ne sors que les après-midis.	I only go out in the afternoon.
Il achète seulement ce qui est nécessaire.	Il n'achète que ce qui est nécessaire.	He only buys what is necessary.

So, did you notice a pattern? Seulement goes where que was and vice-versa. Remember, ne always precedes the conjugated verb.

You can practice switching ne … que and seulement in sentences with the podcast Français Facile (Easy French). Simply scroll down to find the exercises if you want to try your hand at “the switch.”

 

To really get a handle on these words, it is important to read and listen to French material. There is simply no better way to master these concepts than to see them at work and note how they are used.

The more your brain is exposed to them, the more natural it will become to use them. 

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)