whats the difference between " She only went" and " she went only"

Bonjour Stephen, Let's look at a couple of example phrases: she only went to the store . . . .and she did not go anywhere else. ---> Elle n'est qu'allée au magasin et elle n'est allée nulle part ailleurs. she went only to the store . . .but she did not purchase anything. --> Elle n'allait qu'au magasin mais elle n'a rien acheté Even though I have used two different forms of the verb «aller» the structure is similar and using your example sentences, a qualifier needs to be added that further explains the sense of the phrase. J'espère que cela vous aiderait. Bonne chance.

"She went only to the STORE," means she went to the store, but she didn't go anywhere else.

"She only WENT to the store." I guess that would mean that she went to the store, but she didn't RETURN from the store? The sentence is confusing. I really don't know when someone would say, "She only WENT to the store."

Oops, I just realized that we DO say "I only went to the store" to mean "I went to the store, but I didn't go anywhere else." It's not grammatically correct, but, at least in the U.S., we use it all the time.