Using 單單 to mean "only"

Language Learning Chinese
1

Hi,

I am really struggling to get my head around the use of 單單 to mean “only, merely, the amount is not enough”.

I have completed my textbook exercises with my wifes help but I still don’t really understand the pattern.

Could somebody help me to construct some sentences or explain it to me?

Here is an example I made with my wifes help

我太太煮飯煮得很慢，單單一顆蛋她要花二十分鐘煮。

Thank you

2

How about this?

阿姆斯壯(Lance Armstrong)因為曾經患有睪丸癌，現在他的蛋蛋只剩下單單一顆。

Sorry (well, not really :laughing:) for the rather tasteless pun on the Chinese slang for testicles, but I think my usage is actually correct.

3

光一個 is probably used more often, I haven’t heard 單單 very often before

光一個蛋 just one egg

4

I’ve never heard either of them, but from the examples it seems to me you could translate either, quite directly (if clumsily), as “nothing except” or “nothing else but”. You wouldn’t actually write an equivalent sentence in English using those phrases, but I think it captures the meaning. ‘單’ implies something all on its ownsome; ‘光’ (in this context) emptiness or something missing.

5

I saw my hairsalon use it as something like (NT$) 1,000 單 …