だけしか

だけしか～ない means "only", with more weight than だけ or しか alone: it stresses how little there is, usually that it is less than you need. It follows a noun, a number with its counter, or これ/それ, and the verb at the end is always negative.

The negative comes from しか, so a positive verb is wrong.

• × 千円だけしかある → 千円だけしかない

だけ, しか and だけしか

だけ is neutral and works with any verb. しか～ない adds that the amount is small. だけしか～ない adds still more weight to that.

Particles

が and を drop before だけしか. Other particles, such as に

and で, stay in front of it.

だけしか belongs to speech. In writing, plain しか～ない is the usual choice.