The Meaning of だけ

だけ is a common Japanese particle. It only most of the time and expresses limits on words. Keep reading for explanation on when and how to use だけ.

だけ can be used with Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs

だけ is able come after nouns, adjectives and verbs in Japanese. For that reason, the meaning of the sentence changes depending on where だけ is. So, as you can see below having だけ after the noun in a sentence means something different from having it at the end of the sentence.

 太郎たろうだけが来きた
Only Taro, and no-one else came.

太郎が来ただけ 
Taro came, and nothing else happened

In the first example, だけ modifies 太郎 only. In the second sentence however, だけ modifies the entire sentence.

Using だけ before and after other Particles

It is possible to use だけ before or after certain particles. Again this changes the meaning slightly.

この本ほんだけで日本語にほんごが学まなべる
You can learn Japanese just with this book. (You don’t need anything else)

この本でだけ日本語が学べる
This is the only book you can learn Japanese with. (Nothing else will work)

So, when だけ comes after the particle then it has a sense of there not being any other choices. The first sentence could mean that there are other books to learn Japanese. The second sentence means that no other book will teach you Japanese.

Resources

• Weblio
• The Difference between ばかり and だけ