Je n'ai acheté qu'un vélo.

Question

Since "que" is in front of "un", it means "I bought only one bike" (not two).  If I want to say "I bought only a bike." (meaning I bought a bike and nothing else), can you say "Je n'ai acheté un que vélo?

Accepted Answer

Hi Hillary, 
This has been asked many times. 
Please take a look at my answer to another student. What you suggest is wrong I am afraid.
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/what-is-the-meaning-of-aurelie-n-est-qu-allee-au-marche-1

Answer

Hi Hillary,To write "Je n'ai acheté qu'un vélo" means to me that only a single bike was bought where "un" equates to "a" in English.In other words, the purchase was a bike only, not anything else.Hope this helps.Jim

Answer

The link from Cécile is what I was trying to find (unsuccessfully). Just to add for clarity - you also cannot put 'que' between an article and its noun; to restrict the noun, 'que' comes directly before the 'article-noun' not between them.