74742
How does one say "I only see you as a friend" in Japanese?  
Literal translation would give 友達だけとして見ます, but the 見ます part seems awfully
wrong.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-02T14:10:29.163
74741
2020-03-02T22:24:09.757
2020-03-02T14:23:04.693
9831
31222
question
phrase-requests
Correct way to say "I only see you as a friend"
> "I **only** see you as a friend."

You'd use しか～ない for this "only".

Please refer to [this thread](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/12596/9831)
for the difference in nuance between だけ vs しか～ない.

You can form the sentence like this:

> "I see you as a friend." + "only"  
>  = 「友達として見ています。」 + 「しか～ない」  
>  → 「友達として **しか** 見ていま **せん** 。」

Example dialogue:

> Boy: 「好きです！付き合ってください！」  
>  Girl: 「友達としてしか見られないの・・・ごめんなさい！」
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-02T14:28:39.070
74742
2020-03-02T22:24:09.757
2020-03-02T22:24:09.757
22352
9831
74741
answer
One phrase used to express this is

> 友達を超えない

Literally "(you) won't exceed being a friend".
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-02T22:02:52.110
74749
2020-03-02T22:02:52.110
74741
answer