Can someone tell me the difference between だけ, ばかり and しかX ない? They all seem to mean “only”, “just”.

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1. だけ and ばかり are very close tothe same thing in this usage (tho they are used in some ways that are different from each other aside from this, i.e. Xしてばかりいる but not ~~Xしてだけいる~~)

   there’s a minor difference of ばかり implying “too much” or “overdoing it”

   [https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/82718/what-is-the-difference-between-%E3%81%B0%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A-and-%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/82718/what-is-the-difference-between-%E3%81%B0%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A-and-%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91)

   [https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-Japanese-particles-bakari-%E3%81%B0%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A-dake-%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91-and-shika-%E3%81%97%E3%81%8B-When-can-they-be-used-as-synonyms-and-when-not](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-the-Japanese-particles-bakari-%E3%81%B0%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A-dake-%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91-and-shika-%E3%81%97%E3%81%8B-When-can-they-be-used-as-synonyms-and-when-not)

   [https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/expressions-for-numbers-and-amounts/](https://www.wasabi-jpn.com/japanese-grammar/expressions-for-numbers-and-amounts/)

   https://nantong-japanese.com/2022/04/17/%E3%80%8C%E3%81%A0%E3%81%91%E3%80%8D%E3%81%A8%E3%80%8C%E3%81%B0%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A%E3%80%8D%E3%81%AE%E9%81%95%E3%81%84/

   しかない means nothing but, which can mean the same thing in this usage and exists just like both exist in english and are just alternate ways of saying things (and in addition can be used in other ways だけ cannot like やめるしかない=”nothing to do but to quit”/”no alternative but to quit”)

   there’s lots of synonyms, people get bored saying things with the same words over and over

   [https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/dake/](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese-grammar/dake/)