TAKOBOTO

but, only, just
that's all I can do

Add formation 

ろーまじしかかけません。

I can not write anything but romaji [Roman letters]. (western person)

たなかさんしかきませんでした。

No one came except Mr Tanaka.

ひゃくえんしかない。

I only have 100 yen

あかいものしかない。

Nothing but red things.

そこはくるまでしかいけない。

you can only go there by car

えいごしかしりません。

I only know English.

かれらしかわたしにれいをいわなかった。

They were the only people to thank me.

ほんのすうにんのともだちしかいない。

I have only a few friends.

かようのフットボールしあいのかんきゃくはわずかしかいなかった。

There were few spectators at the football match on Tuesday.

かのじょはきんをろうひすることしかのうない。

She never does anything but waste her money.

かれはせいぜいへいきんてんしかとれないだろう。

He will get an average mark at best.

かのじょはせいぜい５せんえんしかはらわないだろう。

She will pay 5,000 yen at most.

きみにさんせいだとしかいえない。

I can`t say but that I agree with you.

かのじょはかねもうけのことしかかんがえない。

She thinks of nothing but making money.

but / only used with neg. predicates & highlights expressed word
compared to だけ, which is used with positive nuance... check out comparison below

dc

Maybe its similar to the difference between "just" and "only".

３人だけでも十分
Just 3 people is fine

３人しかないので、大変だった
Only 3 people, so it was tough..

If you exchange, the nuance is different
３人[しかない]でも十分
Even if with only 3 people, its enough

the nuance is that 3 people is not really enough, but if we try we can do it...

Part of the clue is that after shika you use a negative:
shika[nai]
and dake you use a positive

dc

しか in comparison to だけ has a bit of an implication that the amount that /is/ present is small in comparison with what might be expected.

Amatuka

In the しか 'Mr. Tanaka' example the implication is that more might have been expected to come. There is not such an implication in the だけ version.

Amatuka

(Or such is my understanding ;-)

Amatuka

Yes, thanks Littlefish. The negative is definitely confusing without further explanation to me as well. So, I now read the 'Mr. Tanaka' example more literally as "Nobody, except Mr. Tanaka, came". Otherwise the negative isn't logical. So I think of it as meaning 'except' and wait for the negative to be 'nothing' or 'noone'.

SpurryMOses

Spurry is right, so corrected example #1048.

bamboo4

often used as 「しかない」- nothing but

dc

Or you can use だけしか to emphasize that there were no-shows.

bamboo4

I always got confused when textbooks said that しか...ない means "only," but ない is negative. This kind of threw me off. I've never seen it defined as "nothing but" before. Thank you :)

LittleFish

I think さえ resembles the English "save" quite a lot. So #1048 could also be "Save Mr. Tanaka, no-one came"

Chousuke

Uh, I wonder what I was thinking. Of course I meant しか, not さえ.

Chousuke

If you wanna use "save" in #1048,it would have to be "save for."

bamboo4

I know for this grammar that you often omit the particle.
ラーメンをしか食べていない sounds strange to me.
ラーメンしか食べていない sounds more natural.
Today, I wanted to say "Recently, I am only meeting XX". In this case you would say XXさん と/に しか会っていない. right?
I also hear 何々の前にしか会ってない。
Can anyone clarify the rules of particle omission?

blabby

In the notes,３人しかないので should be ３人しかいないので When you count persons, you use いる/いない and when you refer to inanimate things, you use ある/ない, as the general rule.Elementary, my dear Watson.

bamboo4

I learned this one as "no more than", which always helped me think of it as a negative-sounding idea, and so I never had trouble remembering to use a negative verb with it. Many of the examples use shika + nai, but you should realize that it is the negative form of ANY verb (subject to other grammar rules, of course.)

jmadsen

What's the difference between だけ and ただ? Is it just that ただ comes before a noun, and だけ after?

pingpongpaddle