ばかりJust, Only, Nothing but

ばかり means 'only' or 'nothing but', emphasizing exclusivity, e.g. 甘いものばかり食べている ('He eats nothing but sweets.'). ばかりでなく means 'not only…but also', adding inclusivity, e.g. 甘いものばかりでなく野菜も食べなさい ('Don't eat only sweets, but vegetables too.').

Both ばかり and だけ express limitation, similar to 'only,' but with different nuances. 漫画だけ読んだ means '(He) read only comic books,' while 漫画ばかり読んだ implies '(He) read nothing but comic books,' with a suggestion that other reading would be better. だけ connects to the dictionary form, while ばかり connects to the verb's て form.

ばかり emphasizes exclusivity, meaning 'only' or 'nothing but', e.g. 肉ばかり食べている ('He eats nothing but meat'). だけでなく～も expresses inclusion, meaning 'not only…but also', e.g. 肉だけでなく野菜も食べている ('He eats not only meat but also vegetables'). Compared to だけ, ばかり often carries a stronger nuance of excess or doing something too much.

ばかり means 'only' or 'just', often suggesting repetition or excess, e.g. 文句ばかり言っている ('He does nothing but complain.'). ばかりだ builds on that to express that a situation continues to worsen or progress in one direction, e.g. 状況は悪くなるばかりだ ('The situation keeps getting worse.').

ばかり and だけしか are similar in that both can express limitation, but ばかり emphasizes the idea of excessiveness of a single thing, e.g. 漫画ばかり読む 'do nothing but read manga', while だけしか emphatically stresses insufficiency, e.g. 千円だけしかない ('I have only 1,000 yen.').

Both describe a situation dominated by repeated or excessive actions, but the nuance differs. わ〜わ（で） emphasizes noisy, uncontrolled, or emotionally charged repetition, often highlighting disorder or annoyance, as in 子どもたちが泣くわ叫ぶわで大変だった ('The children were crying and shouting nonstop, and it was a mess.'). ばかり focuses on one action happening repeatedly or continuing in the same direction, often with frustration or resignation, as in 彼は文句言ってばかりいる ('He does nothing but complain.').

ばかり means 'only' or 'just', often with a neutral or excessive nuance, e.g. 寝てばかりいる ('He does nothing but sleep'). ばかりに adds a nuance of regret, expressing that something bad happened solely because of one reason, e.g. 寝坊したばかりに電車に乗り遅れた ('I missed the train just because I overslept').

ばかり and しか～ない can both mean 'only' or 'nothing but', but their usage and nuance differ. ばかり is used with affirmative verb forms and can imply excess. For example, 漫画ばかり読む 'to read only manga' has a sense of reading manga all the time. In contrast, しか～ない is used with negative verbs and expresses 'nothing but' in a more objective sense. For example, 漫画しか読まない simply states that nothing else is read.