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I translate these words as either "only, just, simply".

I'd like to know how I could differentiate these 4 ways (i.e., when I use that one, and when I use the other).

Examples:

  • たったひとつの恋　(Dorama)
  • ただの子供だ
  • ただ待つだけだ
  • よし, この 10 万円は君にあげよう. ただし, これ以上はお断わりだよ.
    ...
    ... so on
daniel tomio
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    Actually, ただし usually means ‘but’, ‘however’, etc. I'd add 〜しか〜ない to the list of words you're asking about though. – Zhen Lin Aug 18 '11 at 13:59
  • btw why is ただ待つだけだ grammatical? shouldn't it be ただ(noun/gerund)だけだ ? – Pacerier Aug 22 '11 at 22:22
  • hmm. i thought of "It's just wait!" (there's no other thing unless wating) ^^ あってるかどうかわからないけど. – daniel tomio Aug 23 '11 at 01:54
  • I cannot imagine the context where ただ蛇だ is used. What is the context? – Tsuyoshi Ito Aug 23 '11 at 02:38
  • @Pacerier - だけ attaches to the 連体形 of 活用語. ただ ain't got nothing to do with it. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 02:44
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    @daniel tomio - "It's just wait!" is ungrammatical. It's more along the lines of "We have only to wait.", "I just wait.", etc. You could say "It is but to wait.", but it sounds a little stilted in everyday speech. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 02:44
  • @rdb btw do you mean to say that 待つ is the 連体形 of 活用語? (this is quite confusing) because isn't 待つ the "dictionary form" ? Is 待つだけだ grammatical? – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 04:36
  • sorry, I was wrong. I corrected now (or I think I corrected. lol). I put ただの虫だ (it's just a simply insect). hope you all could understand now. ^^ – daniel tomio Aug 23 '11 at 04:48
  • ただ待つだけだ: we can but wait!~ Maybe it's the meaning I wanted. I don't know, cuz a japanese person gave me this sentence when I asked her the trasnlation of "You have to wait, only this" or "you don't have other thing to do unless waiting". (sorry if I made confusion). – daniel tomio Aug 23 '11 at 04:53
  • @Pacerier - 待つ is an inflecting word, that is, it changes form according to grammatical rules. This class of word is called 活用語 or 用言, as opposed to words that never change, like nouns、which are called 体言. 用言 would include verbs and inflecting adjectives, like 難しい. 連体形 is the connecting form of verbs, and used to be formally distinct from the dictionary form (終止形), but in modern Japanese, the two are formally identical. The 待つs in 待つ人　and 人は待つ　look the same, but they have different grammatical functions, so they're classed separately. 待つだけだ is definitely grammatical, but 待つ here is 連体形. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 05:23
  • @rdb ok thx for the explanation =D – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 07:22
  • @rdb btw how did you learn all these? the textbooks i use don't ever mention these stuff at all! do you have a book to recommend? – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 09:40
  • @Pacerier - We had to learn them for Classical Japanese to understand the old grammar. (Almost all of which I've completely forgotten, BTW) I don't know that they're particularly useful for a NSOE learner, because most textbooks have their own terms for verb conjugation,etc. If you're interested, though, just google up 日本語文法 or read the English language Wikipedia page titled "Japanese Grammar". – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 20:53
  • @rdb ok cool thx for the help – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 23:12

1 Answers1

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As far as I know, たった and ただ have exactly the same meaning, and are just variants, something like ばかり and　ばっかり。 As to the third example sentence, I'd venture to say that the ただ there is the same ただ at the head of the snake.　(笑)

By the way, as Mr. Ito points out in comments above, if you meant to say, "It's just an ordinary snake" or the like, it needs to be　ただの蛇だ。　If you meant "It's only a snake", as in a case where you were expecting a Yeti, it would be 蛇だけだ。

rdb
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  • btw is it true that ただ蛇だ means "It's only a snake" so basically it is the same as 蛇だけだ ? If so what is the difference in nuance between ただ蛇だ and 蛇だけだ ? – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 07:25
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    No. ただのX means "a mere X", "an ordinary X", etc. A "nothing special about it" X. 蛇だけだ is like this. Imagine you're in the Canadian wilderness, trying to track Bigfoot. You hear a rustling of leaves and turn toward the sound, hoping against hope that it's the sound of Bigfoot approaching. Instead, you see a huge viper noisily crawling toward you. You say: "Oh. It's just a snake." That is 蛇だけだ. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 08:23
  • actually i was comparing it with ただ蛇だ, or do you mean to say that ただ蛇だ is the same as ただの蛇だ ? – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 08:59
  • ただ蛇だ, as has been pointed out earlier, doesn't make much sense. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 09:17
  • ok thx for all the help =D – Pacerier Aug 23 '11 at 09:39
  • Well, I did not point it out (I just pointed out that ただ蛇だ is unnatural), but nice explanation. – Tsuyoshi Ito Aug 23 '11 at 14:35
  • Fair point. My apologies. – rdb Aug 23 '11 at 20:42
  • if ただ and たった are the same, could I say: ただのひとつの恋 and たった子供だ? it's the same meaning? – daniel tomio Aug 31 '11 at 21:43
  • If you want to say "my only love" and "a mere child", you've got them turned around. たったひとつの恋; ただの子供だ. If you want to say something else, please explain. – rdb Aug 31 '11 at 22:21
  • don't they have the same meaning? could ただ and たった be followed by nouns, numbers, verbs, adjetives, anything? both are used the same way? – daniel tomio Sep 03 '11 at 02:31
  • You have to distinguish between ただの, たったの and ただ, たった. The の makes a big difference. Apart from that, they're pretty much the same. – rdb Sep 03 '11 at 03:23
  • but can I say: たった待つだけだ? (sorry, my problems with it werent solved yet) xD – daniel tomio Sep 06 '11 at 20:20
  • As far as I know, anywhere you can say ただ, you can also say たった. – rdb Sep 06 '11 at 21:06
  • I just had the same question. I came across the paragraph "但し、三本足のカラスという外形そのものは、中国起源の「日烏」。中国では古来、太陽にはカラス、月にはウサギまたはヒキガエルが棲むとされて、それぞれの象徴となった。月日の事を「烏兎（うと）」と呼ぶ用例等にこれが現れている" and wondered why it wouldn't simply begin with ただ. Your answer doesn't address that though. – ixtmixilix Dec 06 '11 at 15:15