だけしか～ない To emphasize '~only', Nothing but

最近の返信 (合計10件)

• 

  mrnoone

  English translation:
  To emphasize ‘~only’
  nothing but

  Structure:
  Noun + だけしか + ない

  Explanation:
  Compound particle made of “だけ” and “しか”.

  View on Bunpro

• 

  eefara

  I’ve got a quick question about one of the example sentences.

  私には従兄弟が一人だけしかいません。
  I only have one cousin.

  What is the に doing here beside 私?

• 

  mrnoone

  This is alternative construction, you can use either 私には従兄弟が一人だけしかいません and 私は従兄弟が一人だけしかいません.
  Both mean the same thing.

  It is exactly the same as in:
  東京には外国人がたくさんいます。
  東京は外国人がたくさんいます。
  to make things easier by analogy, you can think of yourself as location of cousin.
  Literally: I have only one cousin with me.

  I hope it helps,
  Cheers!

• 

  eefara

  Ah, it makes sense. Thank you!

• 

  camytang

  These example sentences under the explanation confused me:

  • 土曜日どようびだけしか忙いそがしくないから、出来できたら土曜日どようびがいい。

  Only Saturdays aren’t busy, so if possible Saturday is preferable.

  • この中なかではタケシだけしか上手じょうずではない。他ほかはみんな結構けっこううまい。

  In this group, Takeshi is the only one that isn’t good. Everyone else is considerably skilled.

  • 何なんでこのコップだけしか500円えんではないの？

  Why is this cup the only one that isn’t 500yen?

  Am i just confused? Shouldn’t the translation be that only Saturdays are busy, and Takeshi is the only one who is good, and only this cup is 500 yen?

• 

  tloeser17

  For whatever it is worth, I agree. (Silver lining for me is that confusion over these sentences drove me to discover the grammar discussion threads.)

• 

  BambooCake

  I was just about to create an issue about that! I agree, I’m thoroughly confused by the examples. To me, the example sentences you listed are polar opposites of the other ones on that page.

  Not only that, but deepl.com and Google translate seem to be confused about the meaning, as well (and they work usually quite well, even for more complex phrases, especially deepl.com). Both translate “...

• 

  ResFort

  I immediately came here to see if someone had asked about this, and your reply took the words out of my mouth, as I had also used other translators out there to double check and that got me utterly confused.
  It’s a shame there has been no answer to this riddle so far…

  If 「土曜日だけしか忙しくない」 means “only Saturdays aren’t busy”, how would you say “only Saturdays are busy” with the しか～ない structure?

• 

  meagstudies

  I came to this thread wondering the same thing as everyone else in this thread re: negative vs positive interpretations. I would have thought the sentences would be “only Takeshi is good at” or “only Saturdays are busy” or “the only one that is 500yen.”

• 

  paprikayes

  I also came to this discussion thread hoping to find some insight into how the example sentences seem to showcase contradictory meanings. Did anyone here ever come to a conclusion about how to pick up on that nuance? Is it just one of those things that requires greater context to gauge the meaning?

• 

  nekoyama

  The example sentence that was being discussed above has been changed to use 下手 instead of 上手, so the conclusion appears to be that that particular contradiction was a mistake in the example sentence.