What is the difference between "Solo" and "Solamente"?

Question

I am very confused with 'solo" and "solamente" sometimes witth "unico". Is there any big difference?

Answer 1

Solo is an adjective meaning alone or lonely. Thus:

No me gusta estar solo: I don't like being alone. Siento muy solo cuando no estás aquí: I feel very lonely when you are not here. Su solo preocupación es ganar dinero: His only concern is to make money.

Solamente and its shortened form, sólo, are adverbs meaning only/solely. So:

Es solamente un elefante... : It is only an elephant... Solo quiero verlo una vez: I only want to see it once.

Unico, AFAIK, is an adjective meaning 'only' in the sense of 'unique', like solo. However, while solo can also mean 'lonely', unico doesn't have that power.

Soy el hijo unico de mis padres: I am the only child of my parents Eres the unica que mueves me lleva al cielo: You are the only/unique one that brings me to seventh heaven (I wanted to write 'mueve mis sentidos', but I am not sure I understand that too clearly myself)

Hope that helps. Might be stuff I've missed, but someone else will hopefully fill that in.

' hijo único' without article, I think. Good answer. - annierats, Jan 8, 2014

Correct, Annie. You say "Soy hijo único". "De mis padres" is redundant. How could you not be? - DualG, Jan 9, 2014

Answer 2

I agree with Helado.

Solo = alone, unique = adjective
Sólo = only, just = adverb
Solamente = Sólo = adverb

solamente also means only - chileno, Jan 9, 2014

yes; I meant it meas the exact same thing as "sólo" - HackerKing, Jan 9, 2014