particle N5 essential casualpolitewritten
しか — only
しか
Builds on ない形
Meaning
- only / nothing but ~ (always with a negative) — stresses that the amount falls short of what was hoped or expected
Key sentence
百円しかない。
I've only got a hundred yen.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun (and some particles) | N + しか + negative predicate | 水しかない / 君にしか言わない |
When: Replaces は・が・を; stacks after other particles (にしか, からしか). The verb that follows must be negative.
Examples
一人しか来なかった。
Only one person came (and that was disappointing).
日本語でしか話せません。
I can only speak in Japanese.
今はこれしかできない。
This is all I can do right now.
When you can't use it
- しか cannot stand with a positive verb. ×百円しかある is wrong — the predicate must be negative (百円しかない). The negative is part of the pattern, even though the meaning ('only') feels positive in English.
Easily confused with
See しか in real sentences
Jengo shows しか the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled with reference to A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.