～だけ (only, just)

Japanese Grammar Basic Japanese ★★★★★ 5/5 neutral だけdake
読み だけ
ローマ字 dake
形 Noun + だけ / Verb (plain form) + だけ / い-Adj + だけ / な-Adj + な + だけ

意味

A particle that expresses a limit imposed upon something. It indicates that the quantity, extent, or scope of something is restricted to what is marked by だけ.

だけ restricts the scope of the preceding element, meaning 'only' or 'just.' It can follow nouns, verbs in plain form, adjectives, and counters. Unlike しか (which requires a negative verb), だけ can be used with both affirmative and negative predicates. When combined with particles like が or を, the particle may be dropped (水だけ飲む) or retained (水だけを飲む), with retention sounding slightly more emphatic. だけ can also express extent in the pattern Verb-できるだけ meaning 'as much as possible.' Be careful not to confuse だけ with ばかり, which implies excess or exclusivity with a different nuance.

例文

  1. 今日は水だけ飲みました。
  2. 週末だけ仕事を休みます。
  3. 彼女だけがその答えを知っている。

使い方ガイド

場面: spoken, written, everyday

トーン: descriptive

正しい言い方

  • 必要なものだけ買いましょう。
  • 日本語だけで話してみてください。
  • 見るだけなら無料です。
  • できるだけ早く来てください。

避ける言い方

  • 日本語だけ話しません。(だけ with a negative verb means 'only doesn't do' — use しか～ない for 'speaks nothing but') → 日本語しか話しません。
  • 三つだけしかない。(だけ and しか cannot be combined — choose one or the other) → 三つしかない。
  • 静かだけの部屋がいい。(な-adjective before だけ needs な, not の) → 静かなだけの部屋がいい。

起源と歴史

Derived from the noun 丈 (take/dake), originally meaning 'height' or 'measure,' which evolved to express the concept of a limited extent or degree in classical Japanese.

文化的背景

世代: All ages

社会的背景: Universal

関連フレーズ

～あまり～ない (not very, not much) An adverb indicating that the degree of something is not great. When paired with a negative predicate, it means 'not very' or 'not much.' ～しか～ない (nothing but, only) A particle that marks an element X when nothing but X makes the expressed proposition true. It always requires a negative predicate and emphasizes limitation or insufficiency. ～くらい・ぐらい (about, approximately) A particle that indicates an approximate quantity, extent, or degree. It can express rough estimates for amounts, time, and distance, as well as a minimal or trivial degree of something. ～ずつ (each, at a time) A particle that indicates equal distribution of quantity. It expresses that a certain amount applies to each member of a group, or that something is done in regular, equal increments. ～だけで(は)なく～(も) (not only... but also) A compound expression meaning 'not only X but also Y.' It connects two elements to indicate that X alone does not exhaust the relevant scope — Y is also included. ～ところだ (1) (it takes... to get to) An expression indicating that a place is at a location which takes a certain amount of time or distance to reach. It describes how far something is in terms of travel time or effort. ～ところだ (2) (about to, in the middle of, just did) An expression indicating that someone or something is in a particular temporal phase of an action: just about to do something, currently doing something, or just finished doing something. ～ばかり (nothing but, only) A particle that indicates something is the only thing or state which exists or occurs, often with an implication of excess. It conveys that someone does nothing but a certain action or that a situation is dominated by one element.
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