Limiting particles だけ, しか〜ない, ばかり
A2 取り立て助詞「だけ・しか〜ない・ばかり・数量＋も」 34 / 69
In short
Japanese has two words for “only” and they are not interchangeable: だけ dake is neutral and takes a normal predicate (水だけ飲みます mizu dake nomimasu, “I drink only water”), while しか shika forces the verb into the negative and adds a complaint - “that’s all there is” (水しか飲みません mizu shika nomimasen). ばかり bakari means “nothing but, always”, and the same quantity can be praised with も (十人も来ました, “as many as ten came”) or lamented with しか〜ない (十人しか来ませんでした, “only ten came”).
The rule
These particles do not mark grammatical roles the way を or に do. They single a word out - Japanese grammars call them 取り立て助詞 toritate-joshi, “picking-out particles”. They sit after the word they highlight and leave the rest of the sentence structure alone.
Step 1 - だけ: neutral “only”, attaches to almost anything. Put だけ directly after a noun, a quantity, or a plain-form verb. Nothing else in the sentence changes, and the predicate stays positive.
- Noun: 水だけ mizu dake - “only water”
- Quantity: 三人だけ sannin dake - “only three people”
- Verb (plain form): 見るだけ miru dake - “only look”
Two very common frames grow out of this. 〜だけです dake desu closes a sentence with “that’s all it is”: 見ているだけです (Mite iru dake desu) - “I’m just looking.” 〜だけで dake de means “just by doing that, and nothing more”: ボタンを押すだけで、コーヒーが出ます (Botan o osu dake de, kōhī ga demasu) - “Just press the button and coffee comes out.”
Note the register point: the verb in front of だけ is plain, even when the sentence ends politely. ○食べるだけです (taberu dake desu) against ×食べますだけです. This is the same rule you met with こと and とき - politeness lives on the final predicate only.
Step 2 - しか: “only”, and the verb MUST be negative. しか is not optional-negative like English “only”; the ない／ません is part of the construction. Leave it out and the sentence is simply ungrammatical.
- 千円しかありません。 (Sen’en shika arimasen.) - “I only have 1,000 yen.”
- 日本語しか話せません。 (Nihongo shika hanasemasen.) - “I can only speak Japanese.”
Learners read しか〜ない as a double negative and get confused. Do not translate it word by word: しか marks the one exception, ない wipes out everything else. 千円しかありません literally says “apart from 1,000 yen, there isn’t any” - which is exactly “I only have 1,000 yen”.
Step 3 - Hear the attitude. だけ reports a fact. しか adds that the amount is not enough, or less than you hoped. 千円だけあります is a calm inventory; 千円しかありません is a small groan. Choose by feeling, not by dictionary.
Step 4 - Watch what happens to the other particles. が and を disappear in front of しか. The other particles (に, で, と, から, まで) stay, and しか follows them.
- 水を飲みます -> 水しか飲みません（×水をしか）
- 駅前にあります -> 駅前にしかありません ekimae ni shika arimasen - “it’s only in front of the station”
- ここで買えます -> ここでしか買えません koko de shika kaemasen - “you can only buy it here”
だけ is more relaxed: 水だけ飲みます and 水だけを飲みます are both fine, and both 東京にだけ and 東京だけに (Tōkyō ni dake / Tōkyō dake ni, “only in Tokyo”) occur. You can even stack the two for emphasis: だけしか〜ない - 千円だけしかありません。 (Sen’en dake shika arimasen.) - “I’ve got a mere 1,000 yen.”
Step 5 - ばかり: “nothing but, always”. After a noun it complains that one thing crowds out everything else: 息子はゲームばかりしています (Musuko wa gēmu bakari shite imasu) - “My son does nothing but play games.” With a verb in the て-form, use 〜てばかりいる: 遊んでばかりいます (Asonde bakari imasu) - “he’s always playing about”. Note the shape - the て-form comes first, then ばかり, then いる.
ばかり has a second, unrelated job: plain た-form + ばかり = “have just done it a moment ago”. 来たばかりです (Kita bakari desu) - “I’ve only just arrived.” Again the verb before ばかり is plain た, never ました. A close relative, 〜たところだ, belongs to Formal nouns こと, もの, ところ - meet it there.
Step 6 - Quantity + も, the mirror image of しか. Put も after a number-plus-counter and it means “as many as, a whole” - the speaker finds the amount large. Put しか〜ない on the identical number and it becomes small and disappointing.
- 三時間も待ちました。 (Sanjikan mo machimashita.) - “I waited a whole three hours.”
- 三時間しか待ちませんでした。 (Sanjikan shika machimasen deshita.) - “I only waited three hours.”
Nothing about the number changes; only your judgement of it does. This is the “emphatic” も, different from the “also” も you learned in lesson 6.
Step 7 - くらい／ぐらい: “about”, and “no more than that”. After a quantity it is plain approximation, and the two readings ぐらい and くらい are freely interchangeable: 三十分ぐらい (sanjuppun gurai) - “about thirty minutes”. After a demonstrative it belittles the thing instead: それくらい自分でできます (Sore kurai jibun de dekimasu) - “I can do that much myself.” The fuller system of degree - ほど, くらい, ば〜ほど - waits in Degree and proportion.
Not yours yet. さえ sae (“even”) and the emphatic まで made (“even, going so far as”) pick things out too, but they belong to the B2 set in Emphasis and limitation, together with 〜こそ and 〜のみ. Recognise them in reading; don’t reach for them yet.
Forms & patterns
What each particle attaches to.
| Particle | Attaches to | Example | Romaji | Predicate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| だけ | noun | 水だけ | mizu dake | positive |
| だけ | quantity | 三人だけ | sannin dake | positive |
| だけ | plain verb | 見るだけです | miru dake desu | positive |
| しか | noun | 水しか | mizu shika | negative only |
| しか | quantity | 千円しか | sen’en shika | negative only |
| ばかり | noun | ゲームばかり | gēmu bakari | positive |
| ばかり | て-form + いる | 遊んでばかりいます | asonde bakari imasu | positive |
| ばかり | plain た-form | 来たばかりです | kita bakari desu | positive |
だけ versus しか - same word in English, two different sentences.
| だけ | しか | |
|---|---|---|
| Predicate | positive: 千円あります | negative: 千円ありません |
| Attitude | neutral report | it isn’t enough, a complaint |
| が／を before it | may stay or drop | must drop (×水をしか) |
| に／で／と／から／まで before it | stay | stay: 駅前にしか, 昼からしか, 九時までしか |
| Can combine | だけしか〜ない (emphatic) | だけしか〜ない (emphatic) |
| Sentence | 千円だけあります sen’en dake arimasu | 千円しかありません sen’en shika arimasen |
One quantity, three verdicts.
| Pattern | Example | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quantity + も | 十人も来ました | jūnin mo kimashita | as many as ten came |
| Quantity + だけ | 十人だけ来ました | jūnin dake kimashita | ten came, no more (neutral) |
| Quantity + しか〜ない | 十人しか来ませんでした | jūnin shika kimasen deshita | only ten came (too few) |
| Quantity + ぐらい | 十人ぐらい来ました | jūnin gurai kimashita | about ten came |
Examples
- 私は水だけ飲みます。 (Watashi wa mizu dake nomimasu.) - I drink only water.
- ここに名前を書くだけです。 (Koko ni namae o kaku dake desu.) - You only have to write your name here.
- 財布に千円しかありません。 (Saifu ni sen’en shika arimasen.) - I only have 1,000 yen in my wallet.
- 弟は日本語しか話せません。 (Otōto wa Nihongo shika hanasemasen.) - My younger brother can only speak Japanese.
- その店は駅前にしかありません。 (Sono mise wa ekimae ni shika arimasen.) - That shop is only by the station.
- 息子は毎日ゲームばかりしています。 (Musuko wa mainichi gēmu bakari shite imasu.) - My son does nothing but play games every day.
- さっき昼ご飯を食べたばかりです。 (Sakki hirugohan o tabeta bakari desu.) - I have only just eaten lunch.
- 駅で三十分も待ちました。 (Eki de sanjuppun mo machimashita.) - I waited a whole thirty minutes at the station.
- パーティーに二十人も来ました。 (Pātī ni nijūnin mo kimashita.) - As many as twenty people came to the party.
- その仕事は一時間ぐらいかかります。 (Sono shigoto wa ichijikan gurai kakarimasu.) - That job takes about an hour.
Common mistakes
- 千円しかあります。 (Sen’en shika arimasu.) -> 千円しかありません。 (Sen’en shika arimasen.) - しか cannot stand with a positive verb. The negative ending is half of the construction, not an extra meaning.
- 水をしか飲みません。 (Mizu o shika nomimasen.) -> 水しか飲みません。 (Mizu shika nomimasen.) - が and を drop out in front of しか. Only に, で, と and friends survive: 駅前にしかありません.
- 日本語だけ話せません。 (Nihongo dake hanasemasen.) -> 日本語しか話せません。 (Nihongo shika hanasemasen.) - だけ plus a negative is grammatical but says the opposite: “Japanese is the one language I can’t speak.” For “only Japanese”, the pair is しか〜ない.
- 昼ご飯を食べましたばかりです。 (Hirugohan o tabemashita bakari desu.) -> 昼ご飯を食べたばかりです。 (Hirugohan o tabeta bakari desu.) - ばかり takes the plain た-form. The politeness belongs to the final です, never to the verb inside.
- 弟は遊びばかりいます。 (Otōto wa asobi bakari imasu.) -> 弟は遊んでばかりいます。 (Otōto wa asonde bakari imasu.) - When ばかり combines with いる, it clips onto the て-form: 遊んで + ばかり + います.
Tips
- しか never travels alone. Train your ear to expect the ません at the end of the sentence the moment you hear しか. A sentence with しか and no negative sounds as broken to a Japanese speaker as “I have any money” does in English.
- Same fact, two moods. 千円だけあります and 千円しかありません describe an identical wallet. だけ counts; しか sighs. If you would say “only 1,000 yen!” with feeling, reach for しか.
- も and しか are a matched pair. They attach to the same slot - a number plus its counter - and pull in opposite directions: 五分も休みました (“I got a whole five minutes’ rest”) against 五分しか休めませんでした (“I only got five minutes”). Learning them together fixes both.
- ばかり has two lives, told apart by what precedes it. After a noun or a て-form it is a complaint about repetition (ゲームばかり, 遊んでばかり); after a plain た-form it is time - “just did it”. Same particle, no shared meaning.