しか (shika) — "Only" (with Negative, Insufficiency)
Also means "only", but carries a strong nuance of "nothing but / regretfully only this much". It MUST be paired with a negative predicate.
Structure
[Noun] + しか + [Negative Verb]
Examples
財布には百円しか入っていない。
Saifu ni wa hyakuen shika haitte inai.
There's only 100 yen in my wallet.
百円 + しか + negative verb (入っていない).
英語しか話せません。
Eigo shika hanasemasen.
I can only speak English.
Apologetic nuance: "Unfortunately I can only speak English, nothing else."
教室に学生が一人しかいません。
Kyoushitsu ni gakusei ga hitori shika imasen.
There is only one student in the classroom.
一人 + しか + negative verb (いません) — regretfully, just one.
• Crucial Rule: しか must attach to a grammatically NEGATIVE predicate (あります → しかありません). • Emotion (しか vs だけ): 百円だけある is a neutral fact; 百円しかない is a resigned realization ("I only have 100 yen left…"). • しか usually absorbs and replaces は/が/を.
Commonly confused with
The JLPT rarely asks whether you recognise a pattern — it asks which of several similar patterns fits. These are the ones しか is tested against.
vs だけ (neutral only)
だけ is neutral and takes a positive verb; しか forces a negative verb and adds a "that's not enough" feeling. "一人だけ来た" (one person came) vs "一人しか来なかった" (only one person came, disappointingly).
More particles
- が (ga) — Subject Marker & Exhaustive Listing
- を (o) — Direct Object & Traversal
- に (ni) — Target, Time, and Existence Location
- で (de) — Context of Action (Location, Means, Condition)
- と (to) — And (Exhaustive), With, and Quotation
- か (ka) — Question, Or, and Uncertain Identity
- の (no) — Possession, Modification, & Nominalization
- も (mo) — Also, Too, Both/And, Emphasized Quantity
Study Japanese grammar on LenGaki
Everything on this page, free to browse
- 7,788 JLPT vocabulary words, N5 through N1, with readings and audio
- 2,057 kanji with on'yomi, kun'yomi and stroke-order practice
- 444 grammar points with examples and commonly-confused comparisons
- Full-length N5 and N4 mock exams, timed, with real listening audio
Get the Android app