This lesson frustrates me more than any other
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This lesson frustrates me more than any other
Mike,
this is a difficult area for English speakers, for sure !
The lesson covers this situation in the section marked Attention.
If we replace ‘ cinéma ‘ with ‘ marché ‘, the explanation is the same.
1. Je ne suis qu'allé au marché
I only went to the market (I did nothing else) -> Here the restriction is on the action of going, meaning I've only DONE this, only ‘ going ‘.VERSUS
2. Je ne suis allé qu'au marché.
I went to the marché only (I went nowhere else)-> Here the restriction is on the destination, meaning I only went THERE, only this place.
Of course in both cases in the quiz question, the market was the place that Aurélie went to, but from the first sentence, it is known that the ‘ going ‘ was all she did, no other activity was undertaken. In the 2nd sentence, she may well have mowed the yard, dug the garden and cleaned the house, but when she went out, the market was the only destination.
Just to add to Maarten's explanation:
The restricted part of the sentence is the entire phrase "aller au marché". Therefore it is: Aurélie only "went to the market".
If you want to say that she only went to the market and nowhere else, you'd say Elle n'est allée qu'au marché.
It would be difficult to use this technique and restrict only the verb aller. If that was important to you, you would need an alternative construction (Elle n'est pas allée en voiture, elle est allée á pied.).
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