only
just
no more than
Structure
- たった + (の) + Number
[Used to emphasize. Often with しか、だけ, etc.]
I have a question about an example sentence for this point.
彼はたった一人の兄弟です。
To me this sounds like “he is an only child”.
The translation says “he has only one sibling”.
I would expect this to be written along the lines of:
彼にはたった一人の兄弟がいる。
What am I missing?
I don’t think one can be a single sibling.
The translation seems to interpret the sentence as “in the context of him, there is only one sibling”. I imagine “he is my only brother” would make sense too.
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I’ve given this some more thought but it still doesn’t make sense to use “です” here to me.
I’m either not understanding something quite fundamental about the use of です/だ, or this sentence isn’t grammatical.
Or 一人の兄弟 means “having one sibling” but then that’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of ellipsis.
I know Google translate is very much flawed, but this seems like quite a simple sentence, and there too, I get “がいます” in stead of です.
Can someone explain what I’m missing?
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Maybe you can think of it as:
彼は – As for me, As for my situation
たった一人の兄弟です – it is just a one-brother [situation]
Just like when you answer あなたの家族は？
You could answer: お父さん、お母さん、弟です。
In other words, how you define “your family”.
(You could say that the translation is not the best, but it’s using more natural English than “My ‘brothers’ is defined by just one brother”.)
My feeling is when you use いる you’re describing something more immediate, like “they are here right now in the other room” (not entirely sure though).
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Duh. Watashi wa ringo desu.
I’ve known this since day four of studying Japanese.
But I somehow forgot along the way.
Thanks for explaining so patiently you guys.
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