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（１） りんごだけ。
- Just apple(s) (and nothing else).
（２） これとそれだけ。
－Just that and this (and nothing else).
When one of the major particles we covered in Particles, Particles 2, and Particles 3 are also applied to a word, these particles must come after 「だけ」. In fact, the ordering of multiple particles usually start from the most specific to the most general.
（１） それだけは、食べないでください。
- Just don't eat that. (Anything else is assumed to be OK).
（２） この歌だけを歌わなかった。
- Didn't sing just this song.
（３） その人だけが好きだったんだ。
- That person was the only person I liked.
The same goes for double particles. Again 「だけ」 must come first.
（１） この販売機だけでは、500円玉が使えない。
- Cannot use 500 yen coin in just this vending machine.
With minor particles such as 「から」 or 「まで」, it is difficult to tell which should come first. When in doubt, try googling to see the level of popularity of each combination. It turns out that 「からだけ」 is almost twice as popular as 「だけから」 with a hit number of 90,000 vs. 50,000.
（１） 小林さんからだけは、返事が来なかった。
- A reply has not come from only Kobayashi-san.
Unlike some particles, you can directly attach 「だけ」 to verbs as well.
（１） 準備が終わったから、これからは食べるだけだ。
- Since the preparations are done, from here we just have to eat.
（２） ここに名前を書くだけでいいですか？
- Is it ok to just write [my] name here?
（１） この乗車券は発売当日のみ有効です。
- This boarding ticket is only valid on the date on which it was purchased.
（２） アンケート対象は大学生のみです。
- The targets of this survey are only college students.
（１） これしかない。- There's nothing but this.
The following is wrong.
（誤） これしかある。- (Wrong, wrong, wrong)
As you can see, 「しか」 has an embedded negative meaning while 「だけ」 doesn't have any particular nuance.
（１） これだけ見る。- See just this.
（２） これだけ見ない。- Don't see just this.
（３） これしか見ない。- Don't see anything else but this.
（１） 今日は忙しくて、朝ご飯しか食べられなかった。
- Today was busy and couldn't eat anything but breakfast.
Notice that unlike 「だけ」, it is necessary to finish off the sentence.
（質問） 全部買うの？- You're buying everything?
（１） ううん、これだけ。- Nah, just this.
（２） ううん、これしか買わない - Nah, won't buy anything else but this.
（誤） ううん、これしか。 - (Wrong, the sentence must explicitly indicate the negative.)
While the major particles always come last, it turns out that 「しか」 must come after 「から」 and 「まで」. A google search of 「からしか」 beats 「しかから」 by an overwhelming 60,000 to 600.
（１） アリスからしか何ももらってない。
- I didn't receive anything except from Alice.
You can also use this grammar with verbs.
（１） これから頑張るしかない！
- There's nothing to do but try our best!
（２） こうなったら、逃げるしかない。
- There no choice but to run away once it turns out like this.
（３） もう腐っているから、捨てるしかないよ。
- It's rotten already so there's nothing to do but throw it out.
（１） これは買うっきゃない！
- There's nothing but to buy this!
（２） こうなったら、もうやるっきゃない！
- If things turn out like this, there nothing to do but to just do it!
（１） 何だよ！おばさんばっかりじゃないか？
- What the? Isn't it nothing but obasan?
Or perhaps a little more girly:
（２） いやだ。おばさんばっかり。
- Eww. It's nothing but obasan.
（１） 崇君は漫画ばっかり読んでてさ。かっこ悪い。
- Takashi-kun is reading nothing but comic books... He's so uncool.
It is quite common in casual speech to end midsentence like this. Notice 「読んでて」 is the te-form of 「読んでいる」 with the 「い」 dropped. We assume that the conclusion will come somewhere later in the story.
（２） 彼は麻雀ばかりです。
- He's nothing but mahjong. (He does nothing but play mahjong.)
（３） 直美ちゃんと遊ぶばっかりでしょう！
- You're hanging out with Naomi-chan all the time, aren't you!
（４） 最近は仕事ばっかだよ。
- Lately, it's nothing but work.
（１） 佐藤さんは料理が上手で、また食べ過ぎました。
- Satou-san is good at cooking and I ate too much again.
（２） お酒を飲みすぎないように気をつけてね。
- Be careful to not drink too much, ok?
（３） 大きすぎるからトランクに入らないぞ。
- It won't fit in the trunk cause it's too big, man.
（４） 静かすぎる。罠かもしれないよ。
- It's too quiet. It might be a trap, you know.
（５） 時間が足りなさすぎて、何もできなかった。
- Due to too much of a lack of time, I couldn't do anything.
（６） 彼には、彼女がもったいなさすぎるよ。
- She is totally wasted on him (too good for him).
It is also common to change 「すぎる」 into its stem and use it as a noun.
（Aさん） 昨晩のこと、全然覚えてないな。
- Man, I don't remember anything about last night.
（Bさん） それは飲みすぎだよ。
- That's drinking too much.
（１） 昨日、電話三回もしたよ！
- I called you like three times yesterday!
Notice that the 「も」 particle is attached to the amount "three times". This sentence implies that the speaker called even three times and still the person didn't pick up the phone. We understand this to mean that three times are a lot of times to call someone.
（２） 試験のために三時間も勉強した。
- I studied three whole hours for the exam.
（３） 今年、十キロも太っちゃった！
- I gained 10 whole kilograms this year!
（１） 今日の天気はそれほど寒くない。
- Today's weather is not cold to that extent.
（２） 寝る時間がないほど忙しい。
- Busy to the extent that there's no time to sleep.
When you use this with conditionals, you can express something that translates into English as, "The more you [verb], the more..." The grammar is always formed in the following sequence: [conditional of verb] followed immediately by [same verb+ ほど]
（１） 韓国料理は食べれば食べるほど、おいしくなる。
- About Korean food, the more you eat the tastier it becomes.
The literal translation is, "About Korean food, if you eat, to the extent that you eat, it becomes tasty." which essentially means the same thing. The example uses the 「ば」 conditional form, but the 「たら」 conditional will work as well. Since this is a general statement, the contextual 「なら」 conditional will never work. The decided 「と」 conditional won't work very well here either since it may not always be true depending on the extent of the action.
（１） 歩いたら歩くほど、迷ってしまった。
- The more I walked, the more I got lost.
（２） 勉強をすればするほど、頭がよくなるよ。
- The more you study, the more you will become smarter.
You can also use this grammar with i-adjectives by using the 「ば」 conditional.
（１） iPodは、ハードディスクの容量が大きければ大きいほどもっとたくさんの曲が保存できます。
- About iPod, the larger the hard disk capacity, the more songs you can save.
（２） 航空券は安ければ安いほどいいとは限らない。
- It's not necessarily the case that the cheaper the ticket, the better it is.
For na-adjectives, since you can't use the 「ば」 conditional you have to resort to the 「なら」 conditional. Because it sounds strange to use the 「なら」 conditional in this fashion, you will hardly ever see this grammar used with na-adjectives. Since 「ほど」 is treated as a noun, make sure you don't forget to use 「な」 to attach the noun to the na-adjective.
（１） 文章は、短ければ短いほど、簡単なら簡単なほどよいです。
- The shorter and simpler the sentences, the better it is.
（１） このビルの高さは何ですか？
- What is the height of this building?
（２） 犬の聴覚の敏感さを人間と比べると、はるかに上だ。
- If you compare the level of sensitivity of hearing of dogs to humans, it is far above.
This page has last been revised on 2006/6/24 Fixed 「なさそう」 examples to reflect only negatives (2006/2/18) Added 「っきゃ」 to 「しか」 section (2006/6/24)