Original: お父さんの友達だけが家に来ました。
My guess: Father’s only friend came home.
If not, how should I parse it?
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だけ turns the phrase it comes after that applies to the main sentence and in this case means there wasn’t anyone else who also came home. If you wanted to describe the ongoing relationship of the friend as it is independently from the main verb, it’d come before, e.g. お父さんのたった一人の友達.
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Yeah I agree with bblum here, it’s more like, “Only father’s friend came home/to the house.”
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Ok. That was my second guess, but I just wasn’t sure!
Thanks!
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お父さんの友達だけが家に来ました
It was only my father’s friend who came home.
The だけ part refers to the お父さんの友達 part and then が makes that whole thing the subject.
@bblum has it right for when you want to say “my father’s only friend”
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It’s better to think of of だけ as “just” rather than “only.” The reason is that “only” has further associations that “just” doesn’t have, but だけ tends to correspond more closely to “just” rather than “only.”
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Solution!
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