[General] This is a group for English only

[Silverobama]

Hi.

I am in charge of an online group. The group is English only. Someone was asking questions in Chinese and unrelated to English. I then sent him a notice "This is a group for English only".

Is my italic sentence natural?

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you mean it's a group only for English speakers or do you mean that only English can be spoken in the group? I think you mean the latter, given that you mentioned someone speaking Chinese. In that case, it would be more natural to say "You can/Please speak only English in this group".

Are you aware that "The group is English only" means that the only people who can come to the group are people who are English?

 

[Silverobama]

....do you mean that only English can be spoken in the group? I think you mean the latter, given that you mentioned someone speaking Chinese. In that case, it would be more natural to say "You can/Please speak only English in this group".

Yes, I meant the latter. Thank you.

Are you aware that "The group is English only" means that the only people who can come to the group are people who are English?

Now I realize that.

 

[Phaedrus]

"This is a group for English only".

This is an English-only group.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is an English-only group.

That would be clear enough in the context of the first post, especially if said in response to someone asking a question in Chinese, but I think it's useful for learners to know that as a standalone sentence, it could mean "This is a group for English people only".

 

[Phaedrus]

That would be clear enough in the context of the first post, especially if said in response to someone asking a question in Chinese, but I think it's useful for learners to know that as a standalone sentence, it could mean "This is a group for English people only".

Yes, context is important. In the quote below, "an English-only group" refers to a group whose members cannot speak any language other than English:

"To examine the second hypothesis, the pretest scores for subjects in both experimental and control groups were collapsed into an English-only group (EO), and compared with scores of subjects for whom English is a second language (ESL)." (source)

In Silverobama's usage, the sense of "an English-only group" would not be "not capable of speaking any language other than English" but rather "not permitted to speak any language other than English." The "cannot" implied by "only" can be understood in a sense related to either ability or permission.

 

[Tdol]

and unrelated to English.

I would include the word language to reinforce the content of the group discussions.