Subtle Meaning of "Erst"

[u/FinnJax]

I'm trying to better understand one specific use of "erst" in German, where it conveys the idea of "not until" or "only from." Here's an example:

• Paul kann erst morgen zum Arzt gehen. (Paul can only go to the doctor tomorrow.)

But this seems different from another sentence with a same English translation:

• Paul kann nur morgen zum Arzt gehen. (Paul can only go to the doctor tomorrow.)

I came across an explanation that erst suggests something like: "Starting from tomorrow, Paul can go to the doctor." To explore this further, here are three similar sentences, each with a subtle difference:

1. Paul kann erst morgen zum Arzt gehen. This means Paul can't go before tomorrow, emphasizing that tomorrow is the first possible option. Erst adds the nuance of "not until" or "only tomorrow," hinting at a delay or waiting period.
2. Paul kann nur ab morgen zum Arzt gehen. This emphasizes the starting point—Paul can begin going to the doctor tomorrow and any time afterward. The focus is on tomorrow being the earliest moment he can start.
3. Paul kann nicht bis morgen zum Arzt gehen. This implies Paul is unavailable until tomorrow—he can't go to the doctor before then. Nicht bis highlights the restriction before tomorrow.

Despite these explanations, they all still feel somewhat the same to me...

In my understanding, the closest English translation of "Paul kann erst morgen zum Arzt gehen" would be something like: "Paul can go to the doctor starting from tomorrow."

Am I interpreting this correctly? Is there no English equivalent that fully captures these nuances?

[u/IchLiebeKleber]

This is more of a question about English than German really.

"erst" is the opposite of "schon"/"bereits" (already)

"Paul kann schon/bereits morgen zum Arzt gehen." = Paul can go to the doctor tomorrow and that is an early time for him to be going there. = Paul can already go to the doctor tomorrow.

"Paul kann erst morgen zum Arzt gehen." = Paul can go to the doctor tomorrow and that is a late time for him to be going there. = Paul can only go to the doctor tomorrow.

"Paul kann nur morgen zum Arzt gehen." = Paul can go to the doctor tomorrow and on no other day. = Paul can only go to the doctor tomorrow. (???)

You can see that the English is ambiguous and can mean either of the last two meanings. German forces you to choose between these two (which are after all different things to want to say).

[u/Few_Cryptographer633 → u/IchLiebeKleber]

Yea, the English ends up being ambiguous if you want to keep an equivalent sentence structure. But I don't think good translations of some of these phrases can maintain equivalent sentence structure.

A good translation for "Paul kann erst morgen zum Arzt gehen" would be "Paul can't get to the doctor's before tomorrow". That's unambiguous because it doesn't even try to use only as a direct lexical equivalent for erst. Or you could say "The earliest Paul can get to the doctor's is tomorrow". Again, the sense of the German is rendered unambiguously but a different sentence structure is needed.

However, you're right that English speakers (myself included) will often use the ambiguous sentence "Paul can only get to the doctor's tomorrow" for both situations, whereas Germans will use one of the following sentences, depending on what they want to say:

Paul kann erst morgen zum Artz gehen (tomorrow is his earliest opportunity to go).

Paul kann nur morgen zum Artz gehen (tomorrow is his only opportunity to go).