Koshy Koshy via Flickr
何か(数えられる名詞)について話をするとき、たいていA/AN または ONEを使えばOKですが、場合によってはONEがよりよいこともあります。
数えられる名詞を使うとき、たいていは a/an または one を使用します。たとえば…
- He's staying for one week = He is staying for a week.
- I'll be back in one hour = I'll be back in an hour.
- One guy I know from Japan... = A guy I know from Japan...
一方で、数を強調したいとき、a/an ではなく oneを必ず使います。
- It will cost you one million dollars! Bwa ha ha!
If you say "a million dollars", then it sounds more casual and there is no emphasis on the number.
When you want to make it clear that you do NOT mean two or more, you should use one.
- I was out of the room for just one minute.
- Would you like one bottle or two?
- He has one brother and two sisters.
We use one in the pattern "one... other/another":
- This is a picture of two birds. One is the male and the other is the female.
- He spent his twenties going from one job to another.
We also use one in phrases like "one day" and "one morning" etc. when we mean a particular time, but we don't know or it doesn't matter when.
- One summer, I went to France for a holiday.
- We'll go there one day.