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Mi único amigo decidió distanciarse.

Mi único amigo decidió distanciarse.
My only friend decided to distance himself.
From Lesson 344:Meaning-changing adjectives·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Mi único amigo decidió distanciarse.

Why is único placed before amigo instead of after it?
This is one of those adjectives that changes meaning depending on its position! Placed before the noun, único amigo means "only friend" (referring to quantity). If you placed it after, amigo único would mean "unique friend" or "one-of-a-kind friend" (referring to a quality).
Could I use solo instead of único to mean "only" in this sentence?
No, because as an adjective modifying a noun, solo means "alone" or "lonely". If you said mi amigo solo, it would mean "my lonely friend." To express "only" when modifying a noun, you must use único before the noun.
Why is the reflexive pronoun -se attached to the end of distanciar?
The verb distanciar means "to space out" or "to separate" things. By adding the reflexive pronoun to make it distanciarse, the action reflects back onto the subject. It literally means he decided to distance himself, rather than distancing some other object or person.
Why is distanciar in its infinitive form instead of conjugated?
When a subject performs two verbs back-to-back where the first verb leads directly into the action of the second (like "decided to distance"), only the first verb is conjugated. Here, decidió already tells us the subject and the past tense, so distanciarse stays in the infinitive.

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