# Only I came.



## Zimbobwe

Hi,

If someone wants to tell someone else that he was the only person who came, could he say the following?

إنما جاء أنا


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## cherine

No, because the conjugation of the verb with this pronoun is جئت not جاء. So you can say any of the following possible translations:

إنما جئت أنا (and it sounds a bit strange, but I can't tell with 100% certainty it's wrong).
لم يأتِ (أحدٌ) غيري
لم يأتِ إلايَ
أنا فقط جئت


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## Ali Smith

Could you also say one of the following?

ما جاءَ إلا أنا (if you're a man)
ما جاءَتْ إلا أنا (if you're a woman)


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## bwac14

Ali Smith said:


> ما جاءَ إلا أنا (if you're a man)
> ما جاءَتْ إلا أنا (if you're a woman)


You could say these, but even if you are a woman, it is preferred to use جاء.





Source: الدليل إلى قواعد اللغة العربية


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## Matat

cherine said:


> لم يأتِ إلايَ


A suffix pronoun can't attach to إلا.
لم يأت إلا أنا works.


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## cherine

You are right. Thank you for the correction.
Here's a reference for those interested in more examples and/or explanation:  النحو العربي | الضمير بعد إلا (rafed.net)


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## elroy

Also: أنا وحدي أتيت/جئت


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## Ali Smith

In addition to ما جاء إلا أنا for _Only I came._, I think you could also say أنا جئت

The reason is that putting something at the beginning of the sentence makes it exclusive. I remember the rule went تقديم ما حقه التأخير يفيد الحصر الاختصاص. I remember someone saying that the reason إياك نعبد means 'We worship only you.' is because the مفعول به was put at the beginning of the sentence rather than in its usual place. I think he meant نعبدك would have been the unmarked form.


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## mspears

How would you parse ما جاءَ إلا أنا? Would أنا be marfoo? If so, why?


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## Matat

mspears said:


> How would you parse ما جاءَ إلا أنا?


ما: حرف نفي​جاء: فعل ماض​إلا: حرف حصر​أنا: ضمير منفصل في محل رفع فاعل (جاء)​


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## Ali Smith

Wouldn't the فاعل be ضمير مستتر في الفعل جوازًا تقديره هو?


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## Matat

No, that wouldn't make sense because the هو wouldn't be referring to anyone.


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## Mahaodeh

Ali Smith said:


> In addition to ما جاء إلا أنا for _Only I came._, I think you could also say أنا جئت
> 
> The reason is that putting something at the beginning of the sentence makes it exclusive. I remember the rule went تقديم ما حقه التأخير يفيد الحصر الاختصاص. I remember someone saying that the reason إياك نعبد means 'We worship only you.' is because the مفعول به was put at the beginning of the sentence rather than in its usual place. I think he meant نعبدك would have been the unmarked form.


I would disagree for several reasons:

First, very few say تفيد الحصر, although some did say تفيد الاختصاص, and there is a big difference between the two. 

Second, this is highly disputed by many grammarians including some of the very renowned ones such as سيبويه. The examples that dispute this also come from the Quran.

Third, and most importantly, أنا جئت can actually be argued to not have any تقديم. In this case أنا is المبتدأ and الجملة الفعلية "جئت" في محل رفع خبر. It does not even imply اختصاص. The main difference between this sentence and إياك نعبد is that what came in the beginning is المفعول به, while in أنا جئت some might say it’s الفاعل while the opposing party would say فاعل جئت ضمير مستتر تقديره أنا يعود على المبتدأ), obviously this could not be said about المفعول.

Frankly, at best أنا جئت would imply emphases, but it doesn’t in any way imply that nobody else came.


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## Ali Smith

Mahaodeh: Thanks! But what's the difference between الحصر and الاختصاص?  

By the way, here's a dialogue from my textbook:

الأستاذ في المكتب
قال للولد
أنت، ما أخذت؟
أنا أخذت قلم البنت.

And here's how it's translated:

Le maître est dans le bureau.
Il a dit au garçon :
Toi, qu'as-tu pris ?
Moi, j'ai pris le stylo de la fille.

It's clear that at least the author of this textbook feels having a pronoun before the verb lends emphasis to the فاعل of the verb.


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## Mahaodeh

Ali Smith said:


> Mahaodeh: Thanks! But what's the difference between الحصر and الاختصاص?


الحصر is to limit the action (or whatever you are talking about) to someone or something and no one /nothing else.

الاختصاص is to signal out or to specify someone or something.

To give an English example: _only I came_ is حصر; _it is I who came_ is اختصاص. The difference is that in the first one it clearly excludes everyone else from coming while the second doesn’t really exclude anyone, it just signals me out and specifies that I was the one who came.


Ali Smith said:


> And here's how it's translated:
> 
> Le maître est dans le bureau.
> Il a dit au garçon :
> Toi, qu'as-tu pris ?
> Moi, j'ai pris le stylo de la fille.


I’m sorry, I don’t speak French so I have no idea how it was translated.

I have no objection to the use as emphasis, in fact, if I said something like that I would probably mean to emphasize. However, I do know that some people don’t, the just want to say the pronoun explicitly and after the verb it might be mistaken for مفعول به. I’m aware that I’m this particular case there is no such chance, but I just want to mention in general.


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## Ali Smith

Mahaodeh: Sorry. Here's an English translation of the French translation:

الأستاذ في المكتب The teacher is in the office.
قال للولد He said to the boy,
أنت، ما أخذت؟ "You, what did you take?"
أنا أخذت قلم البنت. "Me, I took the girl's pen."

So, placing the pronouns أنت and أنا before أخذتَ and أخذتُ respectively seems to give a kind of exclusivity or something, don't you think?


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## Mahaodeh

أنت، ما أخذت؟ seems like: “hey you, what did you take?”. It seems as if it’s a way to get the attention of the student. It seems awkward and not very polite.
In the answer, the student is emphasizing himself unnecessarily. Neither implies exclusivity.

In fact, the whole conversation does not seem to require exclusivity, there wouldn’t be any confusion if it went:

ما أخذت يا فلان؟
أخذت قلم البنت

I find the use of pronouns forced and unnatural here.

On a side note, I feel that it should be ماذا rather than ما


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## Alishba.S

But you would translate "I only saw you." as إنما رأيت إياك, not إنما رأيتك


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## Mahaodeh

إنما رأيت إيّاك is wrong as in this case ضمير النصب is متصل, so it should be إنما رأيتك, if that’s what you want to say.

To translate “I only saw you” I would personally go for رأيتك فقط, or رأيتك أنت فقط if I wanted to emphasize “you” for whatever reason. This would be the literal translation, but if it’s something I wanted to say in Arabic without translation my first choice would be ما رأيت غيرك, my second one would be ما رأيت إلا أنت. Frankly, إنما would not even cross my mind in this context.


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## Ali Smith

Mahaodeh: I believe you would have to use إياك regardless of whether you use إنما or not. E.g.

ما رأيتُ إلا إياكَ, not ما رأيتُ إلا أنتَ
إنما رأيتُ إياكَ, not إنما رأيتُ أنتَ
إياكَ رأيتُ, not أنتَ رأيتُ


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## Mahaodeh

Ali Smith said:


> ما رأيتُ إلا إياكَ, not ما رأيتُ إلا أنتَ



My mistake.



Ali Smith said:


> إنما رأيتُ إياكَ, not إنما رأيتُ أنتَ


 رأيت takes ضمير متصل so one that is منفصل is not allowed. It should either be إنما رأيتك or إنما إياك رأيت.




Ali Smith said:


> إياكَ رأيتُ, not أنتَ رأيتُ




Of course you are right, إنما is irrelevant.


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## Sarah Bundogji

Does putting the noun at the beginning impart exclusivity too? Does خالد جاء mean the same thing as إنما جاء خالد and 
ما جاء إلا خالد?


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## Ali Smith

Yes. Observe:

اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنثَىٰ وَمَا تَغِيضُ الْأَرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ

Only Allah knows what each female carries and the wombs' falling short [of completion] and their exceeding [therein].


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## bwac14

That’s just how one person chose to translate it. If you look at Saheeh International, there is no “only” in the translation: “Allah knows what every female carries...”


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## Ali Smith

bwac14 said:


> That’s just how one person chose to translate it. If you look at Saheeh International, there is no “only” in the translation: “Allah knows what every female carries...”


If you don't include the word "only" how do you convey the difference in meaning between يعلم الله and الله يعلم? What is the point of putting the word الله at the beginning of the sentence in اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنثَىٰ وَمَا تَغِيضُ الْأَرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ?


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